


Darkest Night

by BlueberryToasterTart



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Dragons, F/M, Vampire AU, Vampires, Vamps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2018-08-20 08:29:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 64,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8242885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueberryToasterTart/pseuds/BlueberryToasterTart
Summary: Hiccup had never seen a vampire before, yet the sleeping blonde before him looked nothing like the bloodthirsty, demonic monsters that dotted the darkest corners of the Great Hall's walls. Everything told him to run, but he didn't.





	1. Wounded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first story on here, so forgive any strange formatting that may befall this one.

Hiccup's heart bounced out of his chest, or so it felt like. Every bone and muscle went rigid; breath came with labor in his tightened lungs.

When he had set out on an expedition to a new island around Dragon's Edge, he expected to meet new dragons, familiar dragons, maybe even the stray dragon hunter – he did not, in any form or fashion, expect to stumble upon a sleeping vampire.

Yet, here he stood. There she slept.

He had never seen a vampire before, at least not alive and in person. The demonic drawings that spotted the darkest corners of the Great Hall's walls spun stories of bloodthirsty demons, fanged beasts, vicious, a death sentence to any who set eyes upon them. The stories told around haunted campfires painted vampires as menacing creatures of darkness, cursed and vile, as rare as a Night Fury and worse by tenfold.

The blonde vampire Hiccup spied in the shallow cave looked nothing like a flesh-eating monster. She breathed, as implied by the gentle up and down of her chest. Not ugly by any means, she wore the beauty of the cruelest vampires, as told by campfire legends.

His father told the tale of his untimely run-in with a grown vampire, 'cold as ice,' 'mean as a hormonal Monstrous Nightmare.'

The legends passed down said that vampire's looks reflected their souls. Pretty faces hid ugly hearts. If that were true, then the sleeping vampire must be the worst of her kind. Yet nothing about her suggested malice or an internal nature to slaughter on sight.

Hiccup stood within the shadow of the canopy. The trees overhead blocked most of the sunlight. Toothless snoozed at the campsite within shouting range, however, as fast as Toothless ran, Hiccup stood too close to the vampire.

Sunlight dazzled on the grassy island ground between him and the shaded cave. If he stood in the open sunlight, would she attack him? Vampires craved the shade. He stepped forward into the bright midmorning sunlight. If she stirred, she would hurt herself trying to get to him.

In stepping into the sunlight, he also stepped closer to the cave. Closer, he saw the vampire in better light.

She looked ill. He heard that vampires looked sick, but she looked deathly ill.

Hiccup crept closer still, inching his way through the grass, barely moving his feet at all.

Her white skin darkened underneath her eyes. Her chapped lips had gone as white. Her clothes, leather and wool by the looks, were crusted with sea salt as if she'd swam in the sea and dried out. Dried salt crusted along her slender legs, stuck into the material of her dark pants. Her slow breaths came in short bursts, struggling inhales and worrisome exhales. With each inhale her chapped lips parted slightly, between the lips he spied the fangs, pearly white and sharp.

Hiccup swallowed against his dry throat. He'd left his canteen at the camp, too.

No doubt about this strange girl. Vampire.

Gobber had always said vampires didn't stray this far south. Too much sun, too little shade on the open ocean. They slept underground or in complete darkness.

Given what he knew about them, everything about this skinny vampire told him that she was in trouble.

Trouble or no, Hiccup reached for his knife. Death was the only cure for vampires.

His hand trembled around the tight leather handle; he nearly dropped the short blade. He gripped it in both hands and held it out between himself and the vampire, encroaching upon her cave, silent as he could. In what felt like a terrible short span of time, he stood just inside the cave's mouth, on the edge of the sunlight. Beyond him the cave fell into shade, not darkness, the sun shone too bright this morning; she slept against the back wall, a few feet from him, not as far as she could have gotten; she had collapsed, he figured, rather than took shelter for the day.

His breath came in short gasps that he could not control. This close, he could see the otherworldly aura about her, a strangeness, a glow that defied natural people.

Her breath shuddered and his grip on the knife tightened.

Any other Viking would have already slit her throat and carved out her fangs for a trophy. Anyone else would have jumped on the chance to kill a vampire single-handedly, even if that vampire lay sick and undefended.

Hiccup, however, was no ordinary Viking, as he proved many times over to his father in his eighteen years.

The same hesitation that had taken hold when he held a dagger over Toothless' heart pushed the dagger he held above the vampire toward the rocky ground. His eyes remained on her throat, on the pulse that somewhere inside of her beat slowly. He could end her, destroy her, claim a victory worthy of only the best Vikings.

He could. But he couldn't.

He lowered the dagger back to his side. With his resignation, the trembling halted.

He had been focused on her throat, on his own internal fears; he had not noticed her stare. Icy blue eyes watched him, sleepy and half-dead, exhausted and nearly gone. Around the center of her blue eyes, a dangerous red lined the edges.

Hiccup stumbled backwards with a yelp. In his fumble, he dropped the knife. It clanked on the rocky cave floor and bounced closer to her, readily within her easy grasp.

"You!" he gasped. He held his stance in the sunlight. Without the knife he was unarmed. "You're alive."

"Surprise," she said, her smoky voice dry and etched with pain. She strained, barely moving her arm to her torso.

He hadn't seen the wound on her side before her hand moved. Deep red seeped into her dark tunic, blood by the thin metallic smell.

"I didn't know vampires could bleed," Hiccup said, wishing he had his knife.

"Again, surprise," she said. She coughed, a heavy-lunged sound. Her entire lithe body lurched. Her breaths after were quick and strained.

In her distraction, Hiccup crouched and snatched the knife quickly.

Her fit passed. Her breaths calmed. Hey icy blue eyes fell again on Hiccup and his knife. "Are you going to finish the job?"

Hiccup raised the knife between them, more a show than a real threat. He would only attack if the vampire attacked first, or proved that she would hurt him.

"Well?" she asked. "What are you waiting for?"

Her blue eyes narrowed in pain. She winced once again, fist clutching her shirt, knees buckling, eye punching shut.

"What's wrong with you?" Hiccup still held the knife, poised to strike, although he doubted his feeble attempts at self-defense would matter against a vampire.

She laughed, a rough sound that itched his throat. Suddenly, he craved the cool water of the stream by his camp.

"I'm dying," she spat. "What does it look like?"

"I-I don't know. I've never seen a vampire before, let one seen one about to die."

"Lucky you."

"How do I know that you're not lying?" Hiccup wiggled the knife at her, not from a threat but from the anxiety that ran through both of his arms. "You might try to rip my throat out if I get any closer, or if I turn around."

She grinned, a sad expression on her otherwise lovely face. "If I could, I would have already. If I could move you'd already be dead."

Hiccup felt a rock fall into his stomach. Her stern glare told him she meant those words. He swallowed and held onto the dagger's handle. "Why?"

"Why?" she repeated. "Because I'd rather not die if I could help it. Sorry if my desire to survive confuses you."

Hiccup held her stare. He held a knife in defense of his survive, the same reason she claimed to have. "Why attack me. I haven't done anything to you."

She considered him for a moment. "You're holding a knife to me. You are an armed stranger, looking at me like I'm the demon that's caused every problem you've ever had. I would rather attack first than be attacked."

She coughed again, a rugged and desperate quake that grabbed hold of her entire body.

Hiccup relinquished his grip of the blade and took a step back, further into the sunlight. Had he looked at her like that? "I-I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't mean to?" She laughed. "Of course your mean to. It's the way humans look at me. It's the way they are. Always are, always have been and will be. Suspicious. Angry. Suddenly determined and vengeful.

Hiccup felt the weight of the blade in his hand. Had he looked like all of those things? He hung the blade in his hand at his side, loosely, but not without readiness to bring it forth should he require.

He asked, "What happened to you? I thought vampires were supposed to be immortal."

She didn't laugh, but she smiled like she would have if she could. "We're not."

She winced again, this time twisting onto her side. A few tears glimmered along her eyelids. Pieces of dried blood flaked off her shirt with the movement, yet fresh, shimmering red still lingered in the worst of the wound.

Hiccup returned the knife to his belt and crept forward, hands out and exposed, his eyes on her blues. He stepped back into the shade of the cave, metal foot clicking, even though everything inside his head shouted at him to leave, and leave this vampire to a fate suited to her kind, however every other part of his body told him to stay.

"Let me see," Hiccup said, kneeling beside her, metal foot first. He reached for the hem of her tunic.

She glared, but gave no objection.

The wound lay above her hipbone. A gash, made with something slashing past her, grazing her, a spear or an arrow even, bled and had been for some time. The salt water she'd doused herself with hadn't helped.

"It's not healing," Hiccup said, more to himself. The center of the wound still looked as fresh as though it had just happened although the edges of the blood had long dried.

"It…the poison," Astrid said.

"It's keeping it from healing," Hiccup finished her thought. He didn't know poisons could even do that, however the logic was thrown when a vampire entered the situation. He knew little about then, as it turns out, as about as little as he thought he knew about dragons.

Hiccup stood and stepped back to the cave's mouth. "I've got healing supplies back at camp. I'll be back as quick as I can. Don't…go anywhere."

She laughed, a worrisome sound.

Hiccup jogged back through the woods to his campsite. Toothless stood on the edge of the clear stream, head submerged.

"Toothless," Hiccup said.

The urgency in his voice brought Toothless above the water with such haste that he sprayed water in every direction. Hiccup didn't have the reflexes to protect himself, and took the chilled droplets as they came. He reached the saddlebags and quickly found what he needed, and hugged them to his chest. With a curious Toothless on his heels, he jogged back the way he'd come.

The vampire hadn't moved. At the sound of Hiccup's return she opened eyes and at once they settled on Toothless a few paces behind him.

Toothless stepped into the small clearing before the cave and immediately responded; his back arched and his claws spread; a vicious warning growl emitted from his throat.

"It's alright," Hiccup said to Toothless.

He stepped into the mouth of the cave and set his supplies on the ground. She lay still, eyes wider than they had been before.

"Night Fury?" she gasped.

"Yeah," Hiccup said, grabbing a bowl from the supplies. He pat Toothless' head, who then upon command, spit into the bowl Hiccup held. "This is Toothless. Toothless, this is…uh…"

Hiccup gestured toward the vampire with a blank knowledge.

"Astrid," she said, more to Toothless than Hiccup.

Toothless sniffed his way to Astrid, until he stood with his snout a few inches from her face. He looked down over her, and let out a low warble. He sniffed her blonde hair, burying his nose in her loose, dirty hair.

"I haven't," she said with a wince, "seen one in quite a while. I was beginning to think they were really all gone."

Hiccup nearly dropped the bowl. "You've seen other Night Furies?"

"Not in a while, I was little." Astrid lifted a wobbling arm and laid a hand on the side of Toothless' head.

Toothless did not seem at all perturbed by Astrid's presence or her being a vampire. He seemed almost…comforted by it. He tore his attention and his thoughts away from the two of them and started to mix the basic healing salve, aided by Night Fury saliva. He lifted the hem of Astrid's tunic and cleaned the wound as best he could and layered it with a hefty coat of the salve. He wrapped it as best he could with her laying down.

"Thank you," said Astrid, hand resting against Toothless' nose.

"It didn't look that bad once cleaned," Hiccup said. "I'm surprised that it caused you so much trouble. You should be alright now."

She kept her blue eyes on Toothless. She looked less than enthused.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter."

"What doesn't?"

"You tapping me up like that," she said. She closed her eyes. "It will only delay the inevitable, a few hours maybe."

"What?" Hiccup dropped the used bowl back into the supplies. Had the poison been that potent? "Why?"

She half-grinned at him. The red rim around her eyes had grown darker, marking her pupils seem too large. "It wasn't the worst problem."

Hiccup felt the same shiver that she's caused on first sight. He wanted to run back into the woods and take refuge in the brightest sunlight. "What happened to you?"

"I've been," she paused, a woozy gasp eating at the end of her words, "I haven't…eaten in a while."


	2. Brunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I didn't choose the little "warning" tags for this story. I didn't want to apply something to the whole of a story. If there some something in a chapter that I think is mature-sih or might "offend" or "upset" some people, I'll throw a disclaimed at the top of that chapter.

Hiccup blinked. His mind went to the dried mutton he'd brought, and the wild salmon in the stream not too far from his campsite. These ideas were about to leave his mouth when he understood what she meant by eaten. Vampires didn't eat fish or mutton. They fed off humans – humans just like him, naïve enough to stumble into a vampire's hungry sight.

"Oh," he said. His wrists suddenly felt freakishly bare.

"I don't…" She closed her eyes again, this time for longer, and inhaled when she opened them. "I don't eat people often. Only when I have to, or when it's me or them."

"Oh, that's good to know," Hiccup said, not feeling very reassured. "Would right now qualify as one of those moments?"

Her grin, however small before, faded. "It might have."

Hiccup cuffed his wrist in his palm. His pulse quickened under the touch. "If I…I mean, if you…had just enough to keep you going…"

"I couldn't," she said, a gentle shake of her head. "I would start and not be able to stop. I'd hate to kill you after you showed me kindness. That sort of guilt would follow me for years."

"No self-control?" Hiccup wanted to snatch back those words as soon as he said them.

"Not in starvation," she said. She closed her eyes. "I can…feel it. Each time your heart beats, like a hammer. Blood smells…and you…smell nice."

"Thank you?" Hiccup felt both strange and embarrassed by such a compliment. Although, the same compliment coming from anyone else would have felt much worse. "So you're just going to die? I'd rather not live with that sort of guilt either. I can't just do nothing."

"Even for a wretched creature like me?"

The way she said those two words – wretched creature – told him she had heard them many a time before and never in a light-hearted tone.

Hiccup nodded. "Unless you're going to kill me later."

"I will try my hardest not to," she said. "I do have some self-control."

Hiccup chuckled. He couldn't believe the situation he'd gotten himself into. "Okay, Astrid. What do you need me to do?"

Astrid considered him for a moment longer. "I need blood. It doesn't matter where it comes from…can you catch a boar?"

"Probably," Hiccup said, not wanting to dwell too long on the fate of that boar.

"Catch one and bring it to me, alive."

Hiccup gazed out into the forest. He had seen a number of wild boars roaming before landing. He gathered his healing supplies and dumped them back into the saddlebags. He then climbed onto the saddle. "Okay. Come on, Toothless, let's see if we can't do some hunting."

Toothless gave one last look to the wounded vampire and then pushed hard into the sky. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder as the cave vanished in the trees. He couldn't help but feel like he had jumped head first into something beyond his control.

The trees whisked by underfoot. Hiccup could fly off toward the Edge and never look back. He could fly in any direction and never come back to this island.

X

Hiccup returned to the cave not an hour later. Toothless carried a netted wild boar in his claws. The boar squealed and struggled. Hiccup tried his best to ignore the sounds. Of course, Berk hunted boars, too, and he'd eaten one or two in his lifetime. He had seen sheep about to be slaughtered, but somehow this felt different.

Toothless dropped the netted animal on the ground in front of the cave, not high enough to hurt the beast, only to surprise him, stun him from escaping the netting. Toothless prepared to land, but Hiccup halted him.

Astrid crept out of the cave on her hands and knees. Her stare sent a storm of shivers down his spine, a direct glare, wild and hungry, like a dragon eyes a fish after a long flight. She crawled into the sunlight, a feral hunter with prey in her sights. The light dappled her golden hair, bleached her already pale skin a ghostly white. A dangerous red flashed in her wide eyes.

The boar wiggled through the net, but never made it to freedom.

Astrid pounced on the beast with inhuman speed, fangs lashed and prominent, the red rim of her eyes shining like rubies under a torch. She sank her teeth into the squealing boar's neck, forcing it to the ground like it was stuffed.

Toothless warbled, a low, bothered sound.

Hiccup turned his attention elsewhere. Even in her feeble strength, she could have killed him at any time.

The boar squealed louder, a pitiful death wail against his attacker. Hiccup's blood chilled. He glanced down at the ground on the other side of Toothless. How high could a vampire jump?

He decided that he didn't want to stay and find out. He steered Toothless in the direction of their campsite, away from Astrid and the squealing, struggling prey. As they flew, the squealing grew less intense, less horrified, sadder.

The boar's squealing stopped.

Hiccup dropped onto the ground in a flurry, grabbing his things and stuffing them back into the saddlebags without folding or sorting. He didn't have the time. What would happen when Astrid finished with the boar? Would she be looking for an after-dinner snack? Was the boar the appetizer?

Hiccup fastened the lumpy saddlebags. Toothless growled; his attention snapped from Hiccup to something else.

Hiccup felt his heart stop. He looked over his shoulder. Astrid stood between the trees, wiping a drop of fresh, red blood from the corner of her mouth. She still carried a strangeness about her, unnatural grace and fluidity, a glow of sorts. The red in her eyes had vanished and left only the deep blue. Her pale skin had lost the deathly sick-white. The dark circles underneath her eyes had gone.

"I-I…" Hiccup's hand tightened around the saddlebag's clasp.

"Thank you," she said, her smoky voice no longer dry. A sweet cadence rang through it.

"You look better. I mean, you know, you don't look dead anymore."

She shrugged. She took a step to the side, closer to him but still within the shade.

"I thought vampires couldn't stand the sunlight?" Hiccup asked.

She inched closer. "It's not fun. It won't kill me outright."

She paused in her approach and stretched her hand out into the sunlight. It gleamed on her skin. Hiccup spotted a darker shade of skin at her wrist, a discoloration he hadn't noticed before, subtle bruising.

Astrid pulled her hand back inward. She wobbled, but caught herself on a nearby tree trunk.

Hiccup tensed. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," she said, breathless. "It's just…"

"Do you need more?" Hiccup tightened his hand around his wrist.

"No," she said. She slid down the tree to the ground. "The sun won't kill me, but it's not nice to me, either. I just need some rest."

He couldn't relate to the sun, but he knew what exhaustion felt like. "Are you going to tell me what happened to you?"

Astrid closed her eyes and opened them again, her stare fixed on Hiccup. Thoughts stirred behind those eyes. At last she spoke, "I will tell you all about it if you'll do one more thing for me."

Hiccup met her stare. "Like what, exactly?"

Astrid shut her eyes and inhaled. She met his eyes again. "I hate to ask more of you, but do you…have somewhere else to go? Somewhere indoors? Out of the sun?"

Hiccup flinched, yanking on the saddlebag. Toothless warbled. The idea of taking a vampire with him back to Dragon's Edge sounded worse than a flock of Fireworms.

"You don't have to," she said in his hesitation. She stood on shaky legs, using the tree for support. "I understand. Vampires and humans don't get along. I'll be alright. There are caves here to hide in until nightfall."

"Where'll you go after that?"

"Home, I expect," Astrid said with a sigh.

"How?" Hiccup asked. He shifted an uneasy stare to Toothless, who kept his eyes on the retreating vampire.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I'll survive out here until someone comes looking. Unless they believe me dead, someone will eventually start looking."

"Will you be alright by yourself?" Hiccup asked.

She shot a sharp glance over her shoulder. "Of course. There's nothing I can't handle."

"Except poisoned arrows," he added.

"Those," she said she a shrug. She turned away. "As long as those hunters don't find me first, I'm golden."

Hiccup felt the knot of dread tightened in his chest. Why did these sort of decisions always sneak up on him? He watched Astrid walk through the trees in her graceful way, not as badly off as when he'd first seen her.

Toothless warbled lowly. He looked between Hiccup and Astrid.

"Oh, come on," Hiccup defended. "It's a terrible decision."

Toothless warbled and whined.

Hiccup let out a long sigh. He jogged the space between him and the trees, and came within distance of Astrid. At his approaching footsteps she turned, pausing with her hand resting on her wounded side.

Under her cool gaze again, words fumbled in his throat. "I-I do, I have a place, but it's a bit of a flight."

"Flight," she repeated. Her stare settled on Toothless, who had followed his rider. "You ride dragons."

Hiccup smiled and gestured toward Toothless' saddle. "Yes, I do, but I'm not the only one. Everyone on Berk rides dragons."

Astrid took a few steps closer to him, to the saddle, and ran her hand over the well-worn leather, with a look of nervous curiosity.

Hiccup stepped up beside her, the closest he'd been. He could smell the blood on her, bittersweet and metallic, and like sea salt and dirt. "Do you want a ride? I can show you what it's all about."

He grabbed the pedal to the tailpiece and swung it out, bright red in the afternoon. Astrid's eyes settled on it and ran up the metal bracing.

"What is this?" he asked, delicate hand motioning to the tailpiece.

Hiccup chuckled, not wanting to relive that story. "I, uh, shot him down, back when we fought dragons. But when I found him I befriended him and here we are."

Astrid reached out to touch the metal brace. "You shot him down with the intention of killing him?"

"I guess you could say that."

"But you didn't."

Hiccup sighed. Toothless nudged him. "When it came down to the actually killing part…I couldn't."

"Is it a habit of yours?" Astrid looked back at him, standing at the tailpiece.

He shrugged.

"Some might call it weakness," she said, making her way around the other side of Toothless. "Others might say it's bravery."

"How so?"

"It could be a weakness that you are unable to kill something even if that something should be killed," Astrid said as she came around to Toothless' snout. She scratched the dragon underneath the chin. "It could be a strength that you make your own decisions not to blindly kill. You think before you swing the blade."

"I hadn't thought of it like that before," Hiccup said, hand on the back of his neck. his thumb absently ran over his pulse. He shivered.

Astrid said nothing, but her unblinking eyes watched Toothless.

Hiccup climbed onto the saddle and held his hand out. "What do you say, Astrid?"

Astrid took each step with a care that Hiccup couldn't help by admire. She walked around Toothless with a grace unseen by humans. She stood within reach of Hiccup's hand, but held her own at her sides.

A cloud passed under the sun, shading the entire forest.

"There were clouds headed this way," Hiccup said. "You won't be in the direct sunlight for very long."

"Does that worry you?" she asked, looking up.

"Should it?" he asked.

She looked back down at him and shook her head. "I promise that I will not kill you. I told you before I'd rather not have that guilt."

Astrid took his hand. Her fingers fastened around his in a strong grip, cold as ice. She climbed up after him, fitting herself on the saddle behind him. Her legs draped behind his, against him. Her cold arms snaked around his middle, holding him tight against her. She peered over his shoulder, lips dangerously close to his throat.

His pulse quickened; she flinched.

"I won't," she said quietly.

"Alright," Hiccup said to Toothless, "let's head back to the Edge."

Toothless walked back to the clearing and spread his black wings out, free to move without trees, and pushed hard off the ground. They thrust upward into the air. Astrid gasped and held on impossibly tight, pushing a cough out of Hiccup's chest.

"Sorry," she gasped against his shoulder, releasing some of her grip.

"Vampire strength," he said, "I get it."

Toothless rose toward the clouds but Hiccup steered him below them. He'd rather fly on the other side, too, but Astrid wouldn't.

The island shrunk to a green and gray spec behind them, gradually swallowed by the vast steely ocean. Astrid kept her arms around him as they shot south, toward Dragon's Edge. Hiccup's hands trembled. By the time they arrived it would be dark. With any luck they would slip in unnoticed by the other riders. He did not want to explain Astrid's presence.

Astrid buried her face in Hiccup's shoulder. Her cold breath kissed his neck and sent a shiver down his spine, erupting gooseflesh from the source.

Never had he thought, even in a wild day dream, that he would be so close to a vampire. She could sink her teeth into his neck; it was within easy reach. She wouldn't even have to move. She hadn't. Hiccup glanced back every once in a while to make sure she didn't eye him with that hungry glare she'd used on the boar. Each time her eyes had been closed, as if sleeping.

Of course, vampires were nocturnal. Daytime was her nighttime, her natural time to rest and sleep. Hiccup felt silly for not thinking of that sooner.

The sun dipped down below the cloud cover, into the western horizon, melting into the ocean, spreading pure molten gold along the cracking surface. Starts twinkled in the far east. Darkness slowly encroached and took over the world; Dragon's Edge came into view. Hiccup took the longer way around the island in case someone had stayed up late to watch the seas for dragons or hunters.

Astrid stirred, but did not lift her head from his shoulder.

He landed on the backside of his hut, hidden from the others to avoid unwanted attention. Hiccup slid from the saddle, waking Astrid, who watched Hiccup with a sleepy stare. Hiccup lifted the door to his hut and motioned Toothless inside. Astrid sat on the saddle as they entered. Hiccup peered out to see if anyone watched. They didn't and he shut the door.

The darkness inside of his hut suddenly felt too thick, a vampire's sanctuary.

Astrid slipped from Toothless' saddle, feet tapping on the wooden floor. Her shadowed form reflected in the pale moonlight streaming in from his window. Toothless went to his rock-bed and Astrid walked to the only other bed in the room, Hiccup's, and sat down on the edge. The boards under her feet barely gave indication that someone walked at all.

Hiccup inhaled. He'd made it back without a commotion. He chucked, "First a Night Fury, now a vampire. What's next?"

Astrid cocked her head at him, arms draped over her knees. "Are you the boy who fought the Red Death?"

He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "That would be me."

"I knew the story sounded familiar," Astrid said. "So it's true then, you battled the Red Death and won?"

"I didn't do it alone," Hiccup said. "I had Toothless."

Hiccup was too tired to get into the details of the nest, the dragon fighting, the violence, and all the things leading up to that fateful day at Dragon Island.

Instead he said, "You said you'd tell me how you ended up on that island."

"I did," she said with a sigh. She stood. "I haven't spoken to a human in a while. It's a bit different."

"I haven't spoken to a vampire…ever, so I guess it's a level playing field."

Astrid twisted her fingers together. "Yes…but, you are tired. Rest and I will tell you about it later. Tomorrow morning."

"What are you going to do all night?" Hiccup asked. He didn't like the idea of her wandering Dragon's Edge while he slept.

"Bathe," she said. "I am covered in sweat, blood, and sea water and Thor knows what else. I'd like to feel clean."

Hiccup shifted from foot to metal foot.

"I promise that I will not kill you in your sleep, or anyone else," she said. "I will bathe and return here. I might catch a nap. I didn't sleep well yesterday."

"Okay," Hiccup said. He didn't have much of a choice. If she tried anything, Toothless would protect him, as would the other dragons of their riders.

She nodded. "In the morning, then. Goodnight…I don't know your name."

"Hiccup," he said. "Hiccup Haddock."

"Goodnight, Hiccup," she said.

She turned to retreat down the steps. Hiccup blinked, and she was gone.


	3. Strange Findings

Hiccup woke up before dawn. The palest morning light streamed in from his window. He closed his eyes to find the peaceful world between wake and sleep, to remain there a while longer, but a presence beside him in his bed pulled him away from sleep. He turned; sure enough, between him and the wall, lay Astrid.

She slept underneath his blanket, the same as him, with her head resting against the same pillow, inches from his face. Her cold breath gently patted against his face.

Hiccup sat upright and checked both of his wrists. Unbitten. His neck held no puncture wounds.

"What's wrong?" Astrid asked, sleep slurring her words.

"You're in my bed," he said, hand flat against either side of his neck.

She looked at him, sleep tugging at her eyes. She said groggily, "Should I have slept on the floor?"

Hiccup sighed. "That's not the point. How would you like to wake up with a strange man in your bed?"

"You met me yesterday. I said I wouldn't kill you." Her tone sounded with a slight agitation that hadn't been there the day before, a matter-of-factness.

"That's not the point, either."

"Then what is?"

"It's a bit jarring to wake up beside a vampire."

"Ah," she said, closing her eyes. "I apologize."

Hiccup scooted his legs to the edge of the bed. There was no sleeping after that awakening. He adjusted his leg and tested it to make sure the metal secured before he went down the stairs. Toothless warbled, still asleep.

Astrid's voice halted him on the first step.

"We were hunting," Astrid said. She sat up. She no longer wore her soiled clothes.

"Where did you get those?" Hiccup interrupted, pointing to her shirt and pants.

"I found them," she said calmly, looking down at the plain shirt.

"Where?" Hiccup pressed.

"Does it matter?" She sighed, a shrug on her shoulder.

"Considering there isn't a market on the other side of the island, yes, it does." Those clothes looked strangely familiar.

Astrid looked toward the door. "Last night, I went to the mountain springs to bathe. I washed out my clothes but they were soaked. Blood doesn't come out that easily. So I found these in one of those huts."

"Where?" Hiccup demanded. They were women's clothes by the look, which only left two places she could have gone.

Astrid briefly described the location.

"You stole Heather's clothes?" Hiccup crossed his arms.

"I'm not stealing, I'm borrowing. I'll give them back before I go. She won't know they were gone."

Hiccup sighed into his hands. "Did she see you?"

"Heather? No. She's a sound sleeper."

"While you're here, please, don't let anyone else see you. I don't want a panic to run through this place. I've got enough to handle as it is." Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming on. The idea of a naked vampire sneaking around the edge gave him a chill that he didn't understand, one not entirely rooted in anxiety.

"Her dragon didn't make a fuss, either," Astrid said before he could ask, irritation eating on the edge of her words. "She's a sweet dragon."

"Windshear didn't attack?" Hiccup asked. From his previous experience, Windshear hated strangers, especially strangers that endangered Heather.

"No," Astrid said. Her eyes darted to the floor. She brought her graceful hands together and twisted her fingers. "Do you want to hear the story still?"

He glared at her.

"I told you I would tell you in the morning," she said plainly.

He sighed and walked back to the bed and sat down at the floor, away from her easy reach. "Okay."

"We were hunting," she said again. She rested her arms against her legs. "Myself and others. We were up north and we ventured farther out that we normally would do, a foolish act I see now. We were discovered, scattered, and I had the unfortunate fate of being found and captured."

"Captured?" Hiccup asked. Who in their right mind would capture a vampire on purpose?

"They are hunters, but they hunt us," she said darkly.

"Vampire hunters," Hiccup said. The words left a sour taste on his tongue. "That sounds like a horrible job with a lot of unhappy endings."

"They are the worst kind of humans. They have no morals or guilt." Astrid's face twisted in the first bout of raw anger that made him want a dagger.

Hiccup glanced toward his desk where his second prototype of Inferno lay on the desk in several pieces. He told himself he would finished it after the exploration. From what he knew, which was proving not to be as much as he thought, vampires didn't like fire.

Astrid looked down at her hands. "They're just…awful. Insane, terrible people. They say we're the monsters, but we aren't. They are."

"They sound terrible," Hiccup agreed. Although he'd never met a proclaimed vampire hunter, he'd rather not. Dragon hunters were bad enough.

Astrid closed her eyes. Her anger met with exhaustion as she spoke, "They weakened me, tied me to the mast in the sun and just left me."

"Oh," Hiccup said, thinking of the discoloration he'd seen on her wrist. She'd been tortured. "That was why you were so weak when I found you."

She nodded. "I don't know how long they left me, several days, maybe a week. I lost track of time. I couldn't rest or eat…I just…"

"It's alright," Hiccup said, raising a hand toward her as he would a nervous dragon. He lowered his hand as her eyes gazed into his open palm, questioning. He added, "Why not escape?"

"Before they captured me, they shot me with a poisoned arrow. That's what caused the wound," Astrid said, putting a hand over her side. "It has healed well. Thank you."

"A poisoned arrow?" Hiccup repeated.

"Whatever sort of poison it was took over; I could barely move. I only got away when a storm rocked into the ship. I broke free of the ropes and jumped overboard. I saw the island and I swam toward it. It was all I could do to just get ashore. When the sun came out I thought I was dead. Then you came." She laughed, a sweet sound. "I guess Odin doesn't hate me."

Astrid shifted on his bed, adjusting her feet beneath the cover and flattening a wrinkle.

Hiccup watched her, but his thoughts rampaged. The hunters that shot her down used poisoned arrows with debilitating side effects? It was more than coincidence. He wanted to ask her more about these hunters, but her yawn distracted him. Inside her stretched mouth he spotted the tell-tale fangs, not the pearly white of legend but off-white like anyone else's teeth. She closed her mouth and found a stray string on the blanket to pick.

"Hiccup," she said, her voice low. Those blue eyes shifted to him and returned to the blanket. "You've done a lot for me when you didn't have to. You could have left me to die, or killed me yourself. But you didn't. I would be dead without your kindness. I don't have much to repay you."

She shifted her legs, widening the space between her knees. Hiccup felt a terrified lump stick in his throat.

She spoke with her eyes on the blanket, hands fidgeting. "I've been told that human men will accept sex in exchange-"

"Whoa," Hiccup said, jumping from the bed. No words came to mind, only rushed embarrassment and half-thoughts. He repeated, "Whoa."

Astrid sat where she had been, eyes wide and unblinking. She rested her hands upon her knees. She asked slowly, "Do you not enjoy women?"

Hiccup had no words. He inhaled and pressed both hands against his face; it had become increasing hot. Nothing in his life, no dragon skirmish or fearsome sea battle could have prepared him to decline an offer of sex from a vampire.

He peeked between his fingers. Astrid sat where she had been, hands on her knees, looking at him with wide, confused eyes, lips parted slightly. His reaction had not been the one she expected or anticipated.

"I-I didn't say that," Hiccup said quickly. He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. It refused to budge. "It's just that, I don't, require…that kind of…payment."

She stared at him a short moment longer, a red tint to her pale cheeks. She scoffed and pulled her knees back together. "Good. I would have said no, anyway."

"Is that h-how vampires bribe people?" he asked.

She shrugged. She spoke softly, uncertainty worming into her tone, "It's what I've been told. Like I said, you're the first human I've spoken to in a long while." She paused, then added in a near whisper, "Have you not been with a woman before?"

"No," he said, "but that's not the point."

Her expression changed ever so slightly. Her confusion and rejection swirled with amusement. "You are as red as an ember."

Hiccup covered his face again. His skin felt hot to the touch. "Yeah, well it's your fault."

She smiled, a blush tickling her pale cheeks. "For offering pleasure in payment?"

"Yes," Hiccup said pointedly.

Astrid leaned back down into his bed, blonde hair a mess on the pillow.

Hiccup looked toward the door, surprised no one had come knocking yet. He turned back to Astrid, who closed her eyes and drew the blanket back up to her shoulders.

"You know you can't stay here," he said, hands on his hips.

"I know," she said without opening her eyes. "I wasn't planning on it. I'll rest up today and leave tonight. I'll be out of your hair forever in twelve hours, Hiccup Haddock."

"Fine," he said. "Twelve hours."

Hiccup stood a moment longer, until Astrid fell asleep. Hiccup reached up to the window and pulled the curtain along the wooden rod. He used it in case of rain or snow. Of course, someone might think it strange his window was closed and come investigating.

Astrid had promised not to kill him. Did that promise stretch to his friends? He wouldn't chance it. He could keep them busy today, put the twins on some task on the other side of the island and away from Astrid, Snotlout on Monstrous Nightmare gel duty, Fishlegs and Heather on patrol. Done.

Hiccup and Toothless left his hut for the day's work. If he could find something to work on at the forge, he could keep people away from his hut.

With a deep exhale, he slipped outside and shut the door behind him.

X

The hammer fell on the molten iron with a satisfying clank. Hiccup lifted the hammer and thrust it back down. Something in the repetitive motions, the thunderous click-clank, and the heat soothed his anxiety. He used to retreat into the forge on Berk when life in the village became too much, before and after the dragons. The only difference was the stress' origins.

He dropped the hammer into the tool box and reached for the tongs. He lifted the red-hot tail piece into the air to examine it better. He'd gotten the worst of the kink out, as much as he would at this temperature. He set it back over the white-hot coals. While it heated, he took a strip of iron out of the water-cooler. He'd planned a special shaft for Inferno, a secret chamber to hold the Nightmare gel that wasn't too bulky. That gel would seep into the blade along a channel carved into the metal, coating the entire blade.

He held up the special blade to the light. The channel looked good. He'd be forging the rest of Inferno in no time at all.

Hiccup glanced into the sky. The sun hung directly overhead. Noon. Halfway to having no vampire problems.

His initial plan hadn't gone as smooth. He sent the twins on patrol, which knowing them could take into the night if they find something else of occupy their time with – for once in his life he hoped they would.

Heather and Fishlegs went north to investigate a boat that he'd seen, or told them that he had seen. From what little Astrid had told him, these vampire hunters sounded like dragon hunters. If they were still wandering the northern waters, he wanted to know who they were and whether or not they sailed under Viggo's flag.

He would have liked to go himself, but his occupations remained on Berk. He wanted to keep an eye on Astrid more. She might be connected to Viggo and lying. He doubted that, but he didn't want to take those types of chances.

Snotlout had been tricky. Hiccup told him to gather more Monstrous Nightmare gel, and to scout the population of Nightmares on a nearby island. His task had the least time required and could return at any time.

Hiccup turned the tail piece over the coals. He'd be finished with it in another hammering. He scanned over his half-thought out designs. He hadn't been able to focus on them individually. His attention lately had been scattered. He blamed Viggo for the distraction. That vile man had occupied more of Hiccup's mind and time than he'd like to admit, although he denied it fully when the others pointed it out.

It was because of Viggo he suspected the vampire. Little of late had not been connected to Viggo, either by plan or happenstance.

Hiccup found a design he'd abandoned when the dragon hunters showed up. He'd worked out a simple plan for a new leg, one that allowed him to shift from a flight-leg to a walking-leg with a simple switch. He had yet to master the mechanism that would allow him to do so, without the leg being too heavy for practical use.

Hiccup had his eyes on the new leg design and missed the growing dot in the sky, Toothless saw it however, and nudged Hiccup's attention to it.

His heart flipped at the sudden arrival. The one dot came from the north and soon became two larger dots, shaped like two dragons and their riders.

Windshear and Meatlug landed beside each other on the wooden deck outside Hiccup's house.

"Hiccup," Fishlegs said at once.

For a moment, he had forgotten what task he'd sent them on. Then he remembered, the ship.

"Did you see anything?" he asked.

"We did," Heather said. She slid off of Windshear.

Windshear sniffed the air and turned her slender head toward Hiccup's hut. She took one step toward the door and sniffed against the seam between the door and wall. She warbled low, a friendly sound.

Hiccup's heart skipped a beat. To his luck, Heather did not notice.

"We saw a ship in the far north, headed due east," she said, pulling out a map from her belt. She set in on top of Hiccup's desk, covering up his designs. She had drawn a rough outline of the area on it. She pointed to a ship. "We hung to the clouds at first, but we gradually got closer to see who they were."

"They had to have seen us," Fishlegs added from Heather's side.

"They had the same flag," Heather said, "as Viggo."

Hiccup took a sharp inhale. "What else?"

"It was the same flag, but it looked…different. I don't know." Heather chewed on her lower lip. "It had the same sort of dragon hunting equipment, but not as much. It had other things I've never seen before, smaller cages, shackles. It looked like it had been suited for icy waters."

"We talked about it on the way back and it's like they've started hunting people," Fishlegs said with a dire tone.

Hiccup put a hand over his frown. Heather and Fishlegs looked to him for a reaction to this strange and ghastly news. His first thought was of vampires. He couldn't voice that specific thing so soon without drawing suspicion. "Why would they need to capture people?"

"Slaves?" Fishlegs asked, his voice cracking.

"Viggo had never mentioned slaves before," Heather said. She shook her head. "No one on his ships even brought it up. You'd think they would talk about human trafficking."

Hiccup opened his mouth to throw out an opinion, an idea that they needed to further investigate this ship, away from the Edge, and very far away from his hut. The words never left his mouth. In the instance be began to speak, a shrill cry came from the sky.

Barf and Belch came down thunderously on the decking, shaking it and everything attached to it.

"Watch it," Fishlegs scolded.

"Be careful," Heather said, holding onto Fishlegs to keep from toppling over.

"Guys," Tuffnut said with urgency that fit his stern face, without a hint of humor.

"You will never believe what we found," Ruffnut said, face mirroring her brother's.

"Come on, quick before something eats it!" Tuffnut pulled up on the dragon's horns and the Zippleback took off into the air.

Heather and Fishlegs mounted up and Toothless warbled, eyes wide. He nudged Hiccup. Hiccup climbed onto the saddle with a tremble in his gut. Somehow, he knew that they had not found another claim stone or a rock formation oddly shaped like Stoick.

Toothless took off from the deck and followed behind the others, to the other side of the island where he'd sent the twins to scout. He glanced over his shoulder at the closed window of his hut.

He didn't like this.


	4. They Approach

The twins led the way to the far side of the island and landed in a clearing. The others followed.

"Can you please just tell us what it is?" Fishlegs asked again.

The twins gave no hints, no clues, no indications as to what they had found, but their strange silence on the ride had given Hiccup a terrible apprehension.

He landed alongside the others who looked less enthused and ready to turn tail. Hiccup did not want Heather and Fishlegs going back to the Edge without him.

"Come guys," Hiccup said. "Let's humor them, at least."

Sighing, they both dismounted and walked along after the twins.

"It's probably a dead fish," Fishlegs said.

The twins stood in a thicket of trees.

"I wish it were a dead fish," Tuffnut said.

"Yeah, then it wouldn't be so creepy," added Ruffnut.

The twins exchanged glances and gave a simultaneous shiver.

Heather and Fishlegs looked at Hiccup. He took a deep breath and took the first step toward the twins, toward their mysterious whatever-it-was.

He smelled it before he reached them. Death. The beginnings of rot. He hesitated and covered his mouth.

"It doesn't go away," Tuffnut said with a straight face.

Hiccup held his shirt over his nose and mouth, inhaling the sweat and smoke from the forge instead. He stood between the twins and spied into a tiny, weedy clearing in the shade of the canopy.

A dead boar lay in the middle, turned over on its side.

Hiccup dropped his hand. He pointed to the animal and said, "That's it? You dragged us out here for a dead boar?"

Fishlegs and Heather joined him, disappointed and annoyed glances mirrored on their faces. Heather crossed her arms. She had proven that she did not enjoy practical jokes, particularly those that waste time and resources.

"This is ridiculous," Heather said.

Fishlegs agreed.

"If it were just any old dear boar we would have hidden it in Snotlout's hut," Tuffnut said, pointing to the thing.

"Yeah, we were going to," Ruffnut added. She glanced at her brother. "We got closer and saw…it."

"What's it?" Hiccup said.

The twins both lifted a hand toward the boar, index finger straightened, pointing at the animal.

"The things on its neck," Tuffnut said.

Neck. Hiccup turned on the boar before anyone else could. He bent down over the creature, but he was not fast enough to deflect the others. Heather and Fishlegs joined him.

"Oh my Thor," Fishlegs said, hands to his mouth.

"Is that…what I think it is?" Heather asked.

Hiccup couldn't breathe. Below them, on the boar's bloated neck, were two identical puncture marks.

"Told you," Tuffnut said.

"Told you," Ruffnut chimed.

Hiccup bent lower. His heart didn't seem to be beating.

"It can't be," Fishlegs said in a trembling voice. He looked toward the trees in a panic, as if a monster might be hiding in the high branches, waiting to strike them dead.

"No," Heather said. "You're right Fishlegs, it can't be. They…they don't travel, do they?"

"I don't know," Fishlegs said, his voice a squeal. "I've never met one to ask. But it's said they hunt in packs, like dragons, and will kill anyone that sees them."

"But they're nocturnal," Heather said. "So they wouldn't be out right now."

"But what about tonight?" Fishlegs shivered. "What if they come to the Edge looking for dinner?"

"Cool," Ruffnut said.

"Right? Who wouldn't want a vampire as a dinner guest?" Tuffnut said.

"Uh, everyone," Fishlegs said. "They don't eat our food, they eat us!"

"Duh, I know that," Tuffnut said, crossing his arms.

"Hiccup," Heather said lowly, grabbing his arm. "What do you think this means?"

I think it means Astrid stopped for a snack on her way back from the mountain, he thought. He said, "I think it means we need to be cautious, just in case. This might be a new dragon's bite or some other animal we haven't encountered yet. It's a big island. Remember the wolf that bit Tuff?"

Fishlegs squealed. "Yes, but that bite mark is very dominant of human-spaced teeth, exactly what the legends talk about."

"We'll have to stay up on night watch," Heather said. She stood up. "The dragon hunters did talk about vampires."

Everyone except Hiccup flinched at the word, as if it were a bite.

"What did they say?" Hiccup asked.

"They live in the extreme north, or most of them do, because the cold doesn't bother them like it does us. They're reclusive, and can be aggressive and mean. It's rare to see one in the daylight, even in the between hours when the sun isn't quite out, and it's rare than one would wonder this far south."

"What do you think it means?" Fishlegs asked.

"I don't know," Heather said.

"Heather," Hiccup asked, his heart hammering for what he was about to suggest. "Could that ship suited for cold weather have been hunting vampires?"

She narrowed her eyes, hesitated in thought, and then shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Viggo's men were really weird when it came to vampires. They didn't talk about them much, but the way that they acted…I suppose I wouldn't put it past them. They're stupid enough to try."

"Why would they?" Fishlegs asked. His faced paled with each word.

"Who knows," Heather said. "Probably the same reason they hunt dragons."

"That might have been why it looked like they'd been hunting people," Hiccup said.

"Let's just get rid of this," Heather gestured to the boar, "and forget about it."

Hiccup would like nothing more than to forget about the whole thing, start to finish.

They decided against burying to boar and left it to its fate. A dragon would come across it and finish the job, or another animal. Hiccup led the way back to the edge, white knuckles on the saddle. They were suspicious. Getting Astrid off the island wouldn't be easier.

But how to get her off in the first place? He had given it little thought. A boat was out of the question. Too long to build, to bulky, too obvious in the water, and much too slow. The best way off the Edge was by dragon. That invented another matter: did he train another dragon for Astrid to ride or did he fly her away himself?

If he trained her, that would be another dragon rider in the sky. He didn't like that idea. If she were to turn on them, or already had, she didn't need to ride. If she rode with him and Toothless, she could fly them straight into a trap and no one would know.

They landed on the Edge, beside the clubhouse. Hiccup's thoughts purred around in his mind, a dull and relentless cycle of dead ends and bad choices.

"I'll take first patrol," Heather said.

No one argued and she set off, a shrinking dot in the air above them.

"What should we do?" Tuffnut asked.

All eyes trained on Hiccup for answers. He sighed. "Just do whatever you would normally do. This doesn't mean we're being invaded. Stay calm and if you find anything strange let me know."

With that, he walked down the gangplank to his hut and took the map Heather had left off his desk. He rolled it up and stuck it into a barrel of scraps. He'd returned it later. He warmed the forge to its regular glow and set about to finish that tail piece.

With the rise and fall of the hammer, the click-clank of the white-hot iron, he pushed his troubles to the wayside. That night he would take patrol and fly Astrid away from the Edge. He didn't know where 'home' was to her and frankly he didn't care. He'd fly her as far as he could.

He dunked the iron tail piece into the water and watched it sizzle and boil the water around it. He watched until the water no long bubbled.

"Hiccup!"

Snotlout's shout startled him. He dropped the tongs that he'd held onto the tail piece with. They bounced and somehow, in a one-in-one thousand chance, dunked into the water-cooler.

Hookfang landed on the deck. Snotlout slid from the saddle with his arms full. He ran over to Hiccup and dropped the bundle on the ground.

"Look what I found!" Snotlout shouted. He reached into the pile and lifted up a shirt.

Hiccup didn't need to ask. Snotlout, by some grace of Thor, had found the clothes Astrid had washed and left to dry. He held up the shirt, made for a woman, to himself, with wide eyes.

"It's a shirt," Hiccup said, playing dumb.

"It's a girl's shirt," Snotlout said in a whisper. "Do you know what this means?"

"You bought the wrong size?"

"No! Stupid, there's a naked girl wandering around here somewhere."

"Or," Hiccup held his hand up between them, poking the shirt, "someone stopped by the island and you stole their clothes."

Snotlout looked at the shirt in his hands and the pants and shoes at his feet. The possibility seemed to astound him.

"Whoa, what is that?" Fishlegs asked, appearing as if from nowhere.

Hiccup jumped; he'd left his awareness falter with all this stress.

Fishlegs grabbed the pants. They were much too narrow for either of them. "Wait, a full set of clothes? I've not seen anything like these before. Snotlout, where did you find these?"

"Up in the hot springs," Snotlout said. He cracked his neck. "You know, I thought Hookfang and I would take some 'us' time after all that hard work."

Fishlegs looked at Hiccup with a knowing expression. Hiccup inhaled. Fishlegs thought of the mysterious puncture marks on the boar, of the mysterious vampire supposedly lurking somewhere on their island.

"Snotlout, you have to show us where you found these," Fishlegs said.

"Fine, fine," he said, tossing the shirt back into the pile.

"Maybe we should take them back, in case someone comes looking for them," Fishlegs said, determination of a moment ago gone.

Hiccup opened his mouth to argue, but could think of no logical reason why they shouldn't return the clothes. Fishlegs gathered them and held onto them while they followed Snotlout up the mountain, to a cave nestled into the side. Water bubbled up in hot springs, settling in pools through the cave.

Snotlout led them inside, torch lighting the way. He stopped by a series of several pools, all flowing into each other. He pointed to a flat rock away from the water. "I found them right here."

Fishlegs went to examine the rock and Hiccup did the same, pretending to look for anything strange.

Fishlegs looked around in earnest. Hiccup half-looked. In the torchlight, something underneath the rock glittered, a small glint. Hiccup reached for it, fingers inching into the darkness, and found something cool and smooth, like metal. He lifted it into the torchlight.

"I don't see anything," Fishlegs said. He stood. "Wait, Hiccup, what is that?"

"It's a necklace, I think," Hiccup said.

It was a medallion. A crest of some kind had been engraved on one side of the gray metal and the other held an inscription in another language. The leather braided strap that had held it around the wearer's neck had broken.

"I bet whoever wore those clothes wore that," Fishlegs said, his voice a tiny whisper. He held his hand out. "Hiccup, can I see that?"

Hiccup gave it to him, his heart stammering like it might tell Fishlegs exactly where the vampire was.

"I can't read it," Fishlegs said, squinting. "But I know I've seen that symbol before."

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "The Dragon Eye?"

Fishlegs nodded. "The Dragon Eye."

X

Had Hiccup not hidden a vampire in his hut, he would have been thrilled at the discovery. However, due to the circumstances, her nerves teetered inside, rattling and thumping, as worried and enthralled that Astrid's necklace linked to the Dragon Eye's mysterious language.

He followed Fishlegs to the clubhouse house where he and Snotlout watched Fishlegs pour over this notes. Page after page, he flipped and read and studied.

Hiccup paced. The sun moved slow across the sky. It read not even five.

"Here it is," Fishlegs said, pointing to one of the first notes he took. Hiccup came around the table to see. "It's one of the crests."

He referred to one of the first images they found on the Dragon Eye, before they really know what it was. The red fist was in the center of half a dozen other crests, including the one on the necklace, which resembled three arrows bound at the middle. The same strange language on the other side of the medallion appeared underneath the crest in Fishlegs' notes.

"What does it mean?" Snotlout asked, looking over Fishlegs' shoulder.

"I don't know," Fishlegs said. "This is the only instance that the crest appears in my notes. However, this language appears several other times, or at least it looks like the same." He flipped several more pages. "Here. This symbol looks similar to this one on the necklace, but not quite the same."

"It could mean that whoever wore it might be connected to the dragon hunters," Hiccup said. He'd had the sinking suspicious all along. This necklace confirmed that he was, at least a little, right about that.

"Hiccup, what do we do about this?" Fishlegs asked, holding the necklace out to him.

Hiccup took the necklace, as if to examine it further. He intended to ask Astrid about it before she left. Before she left his life forever, he would get answers. "I don't know. I think we should be on high alert for anything out of the ordinary. As of yet, we haven't seen anything. I think it's wise to have more than one patrol going."

"I agree," Fishlegs nodded. "I think Snotlout should go."

"What? Why? I just got back from Nightmare gel harvesting," Snotlout whined.

"I want to stay and go over the notes in better detail," Fishlegs said. "There might be some other clue I haven't seen yet, something I thought insignificant at first glance."

"He's right," Hiccup said. "Snotlout, head out on patrol."

"Fine," Snotlout said with an exaggerated sigh.

Hiccup walked out of the clubhouse and left Fishlegs to his research. Necklace in hand, Hiccup returned to his hut. Toothless waited by the forge as Hiccup slipped inside. He crept to the loft.

Astrid lay asleep in his bed, hair a yellow halo around her peaceful face. She curled around the blanket, hugging it close to her chin. Like this she looked human, as malicious as a sheep, but the sight of her sprung a tremor in Hiccup's chest. She'd caused nothing but trouble since he first saw her and he had the sinking feeling that the trouble wouldn't stop.

X

At the wee hours of sundown, when the sun touched down into the water, liquid molten gold flooded over the glistening surface to the edge of the world. Hiccup stood on the deck outside of his house, entire body sore from long hours at the forge, eyes on the dwindling daylight.

Soon, no more vampire problem.

Heather had returned from her patrol and Fishlegs had left. The twins occupied themselves with tormenting Snotlout, keeping all three of them busy. Toothless seemed agitated, Hiccup assumed it came from a lack of flying that day. They had flown to the woods with the twins, that was it.

Toothless nudged his hand.

"In a little while, bud," Hiccup said. He'd already packed the saddlebags for an overnight trip. If something happened and his absence was noticed, he could use weather, or a rouge dragon and a snapped tail. He had several excused planned ahead of time. He'd had plenty of time to think about it.

Hiccup rearranged his forge tools for the third or fourth time. He heard the distant, rapid flutter of dragon wings.

Fishlegs and Meatlug aimed for Hiccup's hut.

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs called. "We've got a problem!"

"What?" Hiccup asked. He met Fishlegs on the other side of the hut, away from the door.

Fishlegs took a heaved breath, like he had been the one flying; Meatlug looked equally tired. She'd flown as fast as she could.

"Dragon hunter ships," Fishlegs gasped. He pointed out to the ocean, into the blinding sunset light. "Coming this way."

"How many?"

"I couldn't count," Fishlegs said. "I flew back as soon as I saw them. Enough to be a problem."

Hiccup held his hand up, wishing he had his Deathsong amber goggles. They were inside his hut and he didn't want to risk disturbing his visitor. Between his hand and the light and the horizon, he spotted shifting shadows.

"Get the others," Hiccup said. "We'll be ready when they get here."


	5. Saved

Putting his other trouble aside for the more pressing matter, Hiccup jumped onto Toothless as Fishlegs went to rouse the other riders. He flew fast to the south; out of the harsh glare of the sunlit west, he saw the oncoming horde. At least a dozen ships came fast toward them.

The other riders rose into the air around him as the news spread.

"We need to cut them off before they get here or we'll be at the disadvantage," Hiccup called over the flapping wings and breeze.

No on disagreed or argued.

On Hiccup's charge, they soared over the bay to Dragon's Edge to head off the ships. They met halfway between; catapults threw nets, one after the other; poisoned arrows zipped past.

Toothless dived and threw a hot plasma blast onto the deck of a side ship. The wood shattered upon impact. Water erupted through the deck, sending the crew into a tizzy. The other riders worked together, as they'd practiced, attacking and defending each other. Fishlegs and Heather had worked out an impressive teamwork, working seamlessly, wordlessly, in such a manner that left Hiccup a tad bit jealous.

The ships had learned their tricks and defended themselves, making the riders' job harder. The ships kept moving forward.

Hiccup spotted Ryker. He stood, jagged dragon-proof sword resting on his bulky shoulder. He didn't look worried or upset that several of his ships had already sunk.

Hiccup flew over Ryker's ship, larger than the others, and glanced over his shoulder. They'd encroached on the Edge, half as far as they had been at the start.

They were pushing.

"Damn," Hiccup spat. He urged Toothless to shoot at Ryker's ship, even if to startle him.

Toothless warmed up, blue sizzling in the far back of his throat. He spat, a ball of blue burst from his wide mouth. Ryker stepped aside, watching the ball blacken the deck where he had been standing. He looked up; black eyes met Hiccup's, and held until Toothless flew overhead.

Hiccup dodged, right, left, up, down, each way in between. Arrows rush by, grazing the top of his hair.

The ships plowed forward, regardless of how many took fireballs to the deck or sails, or how many hunters were tossed overboard.

"They're vicious!" Heather shouted at Hiccup as their paths crossed.

Hiccup dodged one net as another cascaded down over him, flattening him to Toothless with heavy ropes that smelled of mold and sea water. Toothless warbled as they fell through the sky; he heard the other dragons cry out, but it didn't matter.

Hiccup and Toothless hit the deck hard. He fought against the net and found his way out. He'd fallen a ship away from Ryker, who immediately made his way from his post. A gangplank between the ships was already being pushed.

Hiccup grabbed the knife from his belt and cut Toothless free. Hunters, armed with loaded crossbows and swords and axes surrounded them. Toothless burst through the netting as Ryker appeared through them.

"We meet again," he said, his gravel-filled voice louder than his murmuring hunters.

"You shouldn't be surprised," Hiccup said, counting heads around him. "This is where I live."

Ryker didn't laugh. Not even a smirk twisted his grim expression.

"I hear you were poking around our ships up north," he said, grip shifting on his sword.

"Again, nothing new," Hiccup said.

Ryker swung the sword down between them, dangerously close to Hiccup's face. Toothless growled and Hiccup placed a hand on his snout. One move and they would both be full of arrows, or axed.

"Don't play games with me!" He growled. "Give it back."

"Give what back?" Hiccup asked. "I didn't take anything from you. I didn't get that close to your ship."

"Lies," Ryker said. "The men saw a dragon scouting. It could only have been you."

"Not me, exactly," Hiccup said. It had been Heather, a minor detail. Hiccup hadn't actually seen any ship. He'd taken Astrid's word for it.

Astrid. Hiccup kept his face stern as the thought crossed through his mind. Could Ryker mean Astrid?

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs shouted from above.

The hunters, including Ryker, looked skyward, eastward, where Fishlegs and Meatlug barreled toward them. They readied themselves; at the last moment Meatlug swung upward. As she did so, Hookfang emptied a throat-full of liquid Monstrous Nightmare fire onto the deck behind the hunters.

They scattered.

Hiccup jumped and grabbed for Toothless. A net pounced from somewhere unseen, smothering Toothless underneath, cramping his wings to his body.

"Toothless," Hiccup shouted, and scrambled back to his feet. He grabbed at the net, fist its woven tendrils, but someone else grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him away.

Ryker had grabbed him. He threw Hiccup away from Toothless, on the ground beside the burned deck. Hiccup turned but Ryker held him to the ground with his boot, pushing down on his ribcage, pushing out any air he'd had.

"I'm only going to ask one more time," Ryker said. He shifted his sword to just above Hiccup's forehead.

The sun had nearly set. It streaked pale gold across the purple and blue sky, dotting with stars. Smoke rose from the battle, clouding his vision.

"Where is it?" Ryker hissed.

Hiccup grabbed onto the foot that held his chest to the deck. Ryker shouted, lifted his sword, and swung it down.

Toothless let out a terrible scream. Hiccup closed his eyes to save himself the view of his own death, or maiming, but the blow never came. Instead, Ryker grunted, and then hissed underneath his breath.

Hiccup opened his eyes. He hadn't heard her.

Astrid stood over him, feet above his head, holding Ryker' hand that held the blade. Astrid looked at Ryker with the same viciousness, the same icy gaze that she had used on the boar, and probably the second boar, too.

Astrid pushed Ryker back with enough force to knock the blade from his hand. He stumbled, but did not fall.

"You," he said, pointing at Astrid. His dark eyes had gone wide.

"Seriously?" Astrid spat. She pointed at Ryker. "You come looking for me at sunset? Are you an idiot? Wait, don't answer that. I know the answer and I don't want you to be a liar, too."

Ryker seethed. He grabbed a smaller set of twin daggers from his belt, hidden from view, and thrust them toward Astrid. She moved with lightning speed, inhuman speed, frightening speed, and turned on the offensive just as quick. She turned Ryker over onto his back with a swift set of punches to his gut, chest, and ribcage.

Hiccup rolled onto his feet. He coughed his breath back into his lungs and dashed over to Toothless. He grabbed Ryker's blade and cut the ropes. Toothless worked himself free and Hiccup jumped onto the saddle.

They'd gotten much closer to Dragon's Edge. Astrid could easier have come aboard without swimming.

"Hey," Hiccup called.

Astrid's attention shifted to him for a moment. Ryker lay on the ground, hands and knees, gasping for breath.

"Let's go," Hiccup called.

"You'd let this pig of a man live another day? He'll only keep bothering you. Best to kill him while you've got the chance and be done with it." Astrid crossed her arms.

"What?" Hiccup shook his head. "No. That's not how we do things."

"Foolish boy," Ryker spat.

Astrid kicked him in the gut, sending him over gasping.

"Astrid, get on, now," Hiccup said, pointing to Toothless.

She gazed at him. Shadowed by the blaze on the ship and the natural night, Hiccup swallowed his words. Under that icy gaze, like she was weighing whether or not her promise of not killing him had expired, he wished he hadn't ordered a vampire to do anything. Regardless, he held onto his gaze, challenged hers, and refused to leave.

Astrid looked down at Ryker. He'd gone a shade of white, unconscious. Astrid walked away from him and climbed onto the back of Toothless. Her cold hands grabbed onto Hiccup's waist, the same hands that had flung a grown man back several feet without effort.

Hiccup shot into the air. Between the five dragons, they sent the other ships running, or sailing. The hopeless ships sank slowly into the water, bubbling through the broken, cracked decks.

Together, they flew toward the Edge. Hiccup felt the eyes on him, on the person with him who hadn't been there when they had flown out. Hiccup kept his eyes on the clubhouse. No avoiding it now.

He thought about racing to the north and ignoring their questions, but he knew they'd follow.

Toothless landed first. Windshear landed soon after.

"Who is she?" Heather demanded, her voice full of her angry accusations.

Astrid loosened her arms from around his middle.

"Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

The dragons, to their riders' push, blocked the easiest way back to the sky.

"Where did she come from?" Snotlout added.

"Are those my clothes?" Heather demanded, her voice a pitch higher. She pointed to Astrid. "She was in my hut?"

Hiccup took a deep inhale and stretched his hands out, sweeping for silence.

Heather crossed her arms.

"So the clothes we found were yours?" Fishlegs asked.

"I didn't know you found any clothes," Astrid said calmly, a bit irritated.

"Yes, they were," Hiccup answered.

"Hiccup, what happened?" Heather asked, narrowing her glare at him.

He let out an exhale. "Inside."

The riders dismounted and followed Hiccup into the clubhouse. Astrid walked behind him and stood against the far wall, the farthest spot away from the others. Hiccup tossed a new log onto the fire, brightening the flames and shaking embers into the air.

Out of the corner of his eye, Astrid flinched.

"Well?" Fishlegs asked, more intrigued than angry.

"I went out exploring like I told you," Hiccup said.

It didn't take long to catch them up to speed on his situation. During his story, no one said a word. Fishlegs kept looking between Hiccup and Astrid, like he'd seen a new dragon species and he couldn't wait to measure the wingspan. Snotlout eyed Astrid with a spot of drool in the corner of his mouth. The twins listened intently, whispering occasionally to each other. Heather glared, her sharp green eyes fixed on Astrid who looked neither intimidated or bothered.

"So…yeah," Hiccup said, rubbing the back of his neck. He motioned to Astrid.

"You're…really a vampire?" Fishlegs whispered the word and covered his mouth.

Astrid shrugged. "Really."

Fishlegs squealed. "That's so fascinating! I've never met one! Is it true that you can-"

"When is it leaving?" Heather interrupted.

Fishlegs blinked at Heather, then turned to Hiccup.

"Tonight," Hiccup said. "I had planned to fly her home while you slept. That way no one would be the wiser."

"Alone?" Heather snapped.

Hiccup shrugged. "That would be the no-one-would-know part of the plan."

Heather scoffed. "That's a horrible idea."

"How so?" Astrid asked, turning her calm attention to Heather. "You'd rather me stay here?"

"No," Heather spat. "Hiccup, she could by lying to you, leading you out into the middle of nowhere to … do whatever it is they do."

Astrid laughed, a light chuckle. "Which would be what, exactly?"

"I don't know," Heather said. She shifted on her feet, hands resting on her hips. "Kill him, drain him dry, or whatever. I'm sure it's horrible."

"Maybe," Fishlegs said, tentative finger in the air, "we could wait a day."

"What? Why?" Heather asked.

"Why not?" Tuffnut added. "Remember that talk we had earlier about inviting a vampire to dinner? Yeah."

"Yeah," Ruffnut said.

Hiccup heard Astrid inhale, a low, slow sound.

"She can stay in my hut," Snotlout said, wiggling his brow.

Astrid smirked. She spoke in a sultry tone, "Do you really want that?"

Snotlout blinked. He paled. "Oh…uh…"

"Where is home, exactly?" Heather asked.

"North," Astrid said.

"That leaves a lot of space."

"If you won't tell us how will Hiccup take you home?"

"He wouldn't go all the way. I'd tell him to stop before that."

"You'd 'tell him to stop'? What is he, your thrall?"

Astrid laughed, a warm sound, light and airy. "Who is telling you these stories? If he was a thrall you'd know it."

Heather raised a brow.

"Thralls look worse than half-dead," Astrid said. "They're eyes glaze over like a corpse, all white and misty. It's nasty. That same cloudiness makes them look bloated."

"And you know this how?"

"Because I've seen them," Astrid said as if it were obvious. "Unlike you, it seems."

Heather held Astrid in her glare. "We should go with you, Hiccup. I don't trust her."

Hiccup looked between Heather and Astrid. He exhaled. Heather and Astrid shared a frightening determination that he didn't want to cross. If he denied Heather, she would be upset. If he denied Astrid, she might kill him. Although, it had been her decision to leave tonight, not his.

Astrid let out a sigh, "Hiccup helped me. He saved me. I promised him I wouldn't kill him."

"Right," Heather said. She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Take her whatever. If you don't come back by dawn we're coming to find you."

She pointed at Astrid.

Astrid shrugged.

Hiccup reached for Astrid's arm and escorted her through the riders and outside to the deck where the dragons waited. Fishlegs looked beyond disappointed. He'd already made a list of things he'd like to know in his mind, and had he been given another hour he would have filled a book's worth of knowledge about vampires.

Instead, Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' saddle and Astrid climbed up after him, loosely folding her arms around his middle. He didn't look back to see the other riders' faces. Toothless pushed off and Astrid's arms tightened around him, her chest flush against his back, her legs against his.

They flew away from the Edge.

"At least the hunters are gone," Hiccup said, scanning the dark horizon.

"They'll come back," Astrid said. "They're persistent asses."

"They're hunting you, too?"

"I guess so. I didn't know they hunted dragons. I'm not surprised. If they can sell it, they'll look for it."

"So…where am I going?" Hiccup wiggled his hands on the saddle.

"North," Astrid said, she pointed. "Head that way and I'll guide you."

"Am I flying into trap?" Hiccup asked, half in good humor, half afraid of the answer.

Astrid sighed. "You're right." She lowered her voice and spoke into his hear, "I'm not planning on letting you go. We'll land and I'll lock you up and keep you as a pet."

"Just remember to feed me at least once a day," Hiccup said, swallowing hard against a lump stuck in his throat.

Astrid hummed, a smile on her tone. She settled her head on his shoulder.


	6. North by North

The sun dipped completely below the ocean and the world fell into darkness. Hiccup tried his best to swallow his yawns, but finally he couldn't.

"Will you be alright flying much farther?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. "We've flown farther before."

"We can stop if you need to."

"I'll be fine." Hiccup adjusted his hands on the saddle. Toothless warbled. Hiccup felt a burst of her breath, an exhale, push against his cheek. Her skin felt cold; her breath did, too, but it still had a human warmth to it, moisture. "I-I'm sorry about those guys back on the Edge. I knew they might react like that."

"It's normal," Astrid said. "That's why we live so far north. Away from humans."

"Have you, uh, thought about trying to live in peace? I mean, we used to fight dragons, but we learned to live with them. I'm sure that we could do the same for vampires," he said.

Astrid chuckled. "Except for the part when vampires need to eat. That's what makes most people nervous."

"I'm pretty sure that makes people nervous around dragons, too."

"Dragons don't eat people," Astrid said.

He swallowed. "Do you…eat people?"

"Not really, no," she said. "I…would rather not. It doesn't feel right. Some vampires, the ones that have been around longer, the older ones, are alright with it. They don't see themselves as human anymore."

"But you are," Hiccup said, then thought about it. "Right?"

"I don't know," she said with a gentle shake of her head. "I would like to think I'm just as human as I used to be, but that's up for debate. Something…changes when you turn. I don't know what it is or how, but you're not the same when you wake up. Everything's different. It feels different."

"You used to be human?"

"Of course," she said matter-of-factly. "Vampires aren't born vampires. Well, some are, but those are very rare. Most vampires are turned by others."

Hiccup swallowed. Suddenly, being alone over the vast, midnight-black ocean with a vampire sounded like a horrible idea.

"Are you alright?" she asked, leaning around his shoulder.

He saw her blink in his peripheral. "Yeah. I'm just thinking how I should have pushed to stay another night. I kind of want to know what Fishlegs wanted to know. It's fascinating, in a way."

"What do you want to know?" Astrid asked plainly. Her arms around his middle loosened and then tightened. "There's not a lot I won't tell you. And if I don't want to I won't. Ask away. Then you can go home and tell him all about it, and reassure your girlfriend that I didn't kill you."

"My girlfriend?" Hiccup blinked, confused for a brief moment. He looked back over his shoulder. He chuckled. "Heather? Nah, she's with Fishlegs."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded. "They work well together. She and I aren't…we're not compatible like that, I guess. We've never had that sort of connection. She's like a sister to me. Anyway, since I don't know exactly what Fishlegs would have asked…uh, how old are you?"

Astrid didn't hesitate, "Twenty-two."

Two years older than they were. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder in what much have been surprise or disbelief. Astrid's brows scrunched.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, turning his attention ahead. "I just thought you'd be older. I always thought vampires were like…hundreds of years old."

"No," Astrid said. "Although there are some who are. Our elder turned nine hundred and ninety-eight this year."

"Damn," Hiccup said. Nearly one thousand years old.

"I know," Astrid said with a chuckle. "He's not doing so well, though. He's been training someone else to take his place. Mamie doesn't think he'll make it to the one thousand."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked. "Aren't vampires immortal?"

Astrid laughed. Her chest shifted against his back with the motion. "No, we're not. We just live a long time. One thousand is old for a vampire. The average life span is somewhere in the seven hundreds."

"And you're just twenty," Hiccup said. She had a lot of life ahead. With seven hundred years, he could map the entire world, discover every possible new dragon, and eradicate all of the dragon hunters. "Compared to humans you're practically immortal."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Astrid said. Her voice took on a miserable gloom as she added, "Mamie had three children before she turned. That was two hundred years ago. She watched them all grow up, have their own children, grow old and die. She's assured me that attending her son's funeral was the worst thing she could imagine."

"I bet," Hiccup said. "You said that vampires can be born. How does that work?"

Astrid laughed, a mischievous sound. "You really want to know?"

"Unless it's really gross, yeah. I'm sure Fishlegs would love to hear about it."

"Well," Astrid began, "it starts when a male vampire and a female vampire love each other."  
"Astrid," Hiccup interrupted.

She laughed again, shaking her ribcage against his back.

"I'm not making that part up," Astrid said, a laugh still on her tongue.

"I know how that part happens," he said.

"Vampires, when they turn, gradually lose their ability to reproduce, just like humans. It's like their humanity is weened out of them over time," she said. "But, it is possible for two young vampires to reproduce. That offspring will be born a vampire. But, apparently it is near impossible for a female vampire to get pregnant. Don't ask me why, I don't know. It's probably something in the turning that does something."

"Do you have any children?"

"No," she said quietly. "I was thirteen when I turned, way too young to have children."

"This one might be a bit personal, but," Hiccup paused. He wanted to know, but he didn't. "How…did you become a vampire?"

Astrid hesitated. His hands wiggled on his middle, fingering one of the leather straps that ran along his leather cuirass.

"You don't have to tell me," he said.

"It's one of those complicated things," she said. "I try not to look back on it. It's the past, and it doesn't belong anywhere else but behind me."

"I understand," Hiccup said.

"Thank you," she said.

A strange silence fell between them. Astrid again rested her head against Hiccup's shoulder. The sea below churned. A storm in the distant west bubbled and flashed. The thunder did not reach them. A chilled wind blew from the north.

"Start heading northwest," Astrid said, pointing in the direction.

"How can you know which way that is?" Hiccup asked. He knew, but he had been flying Toothless in the air for enough time to gain a significant sense of direction.

"The stars," she said. She pointed upward. "Do you see than reddish one there? The five following behind like an arrow? That arrow always points home."

"And…home is where?"

"North," she said. "We've still got a way to go yet before anything changes."

"If we keep going we'll hit Glacier Island," Hiccup said. "Beyond that it's just ice."

"I know," she said. "It's there."

"You live in a glacier?"

She didn't answer. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder at her; she smiled.

The storm in the west stayed there. The sea breeze turned chilly. Glacier Island popped over the horizon, an icy spec between sparkling black sky and churning black sea. Hiccup suppressed a yawn.

"We can land there for the night if you'd like," Astrid said, pointing at the frozen island. "There are caves. We can take off tomorrow morning. I can sleep on the way."

"But I don't know where I'd be going," he said.

She nodded. "True. You could wake me up when we get there."

"I'll be alright. How much farther is it from Glacier Island?"

She never told him the answer. She opened her mouth to speak, but her attention left him and fell to the quickly approaching island. From the other side, hidden by the ice, a ship appeared with sails the same color as the sea.

Astrid grabbed onto Hiccup's arm. "Lookout!"

A net launched from the ship's deck, and then another, along with a dozen or so arrows. Toothless jerked this way and that, trying his best to evade, but the sudden attack gained the advantage. A net covered the three of them, sending them falling toward the icy waters below.

Hiccup reached for the knife in his belt, to cut the ropes, but they plunged into the waters. Icy daggers soaked into his clothes. He held his breath; the darkness surrounded him, all inky, sunless waters. A hand grabbed onto his arm and pulled him into a direction, swimming beside him. He broke the water's churning surface just as a wave crashed down. Astrid again grabbed him, keeping him a float.

"Toothless?" Hiccup called.

The dragon cried out; the net was being pulled back toward the ship. Hiccup tried to move. His entire body felt frozen, tiny needles jabbing into his skin, into his muscles, turning his bones to ice. Another wave pulled him under. His frozen limbs couldn't swim enough to reach the surface. Astrid appeared again and pulled him upward. This time she did not let go once they reached air.

The ship pulled Toothless aboard and sailed toward them; a net shot down over them, snatching them both in its woven grasp. It pushed and pulled them under the water several times before they reached the ship's side and began the slow journey up, pulled by the creaking wench.

"Astrid, we need to get out of this," Hiccup grabbed on to the net's sides, pulling at the ropes. Surely, these ropes were no match for a vampire's strength. "Astrid?"

She held onto the ropes, white knuckles gripping. Her skin paled and her eyes squeezed shut. Pain twisted her face.

"Astrid?" Hiccup reached a shaking hand to her.

A bleeding gash ran along her forearm.

"They hit me," she said, her voice a desperate gasp.

Hiccup inhaled. Astrid was poisoned, Toothless captured. He could use a plan right about now, but his body had shut down from the ice bath.

The net fell onto the deck with a squishy thump. Dragon hunters stood around, a few held torches. One of them, wearing a wool cap stepped forward. Hiccup didn't recognize him, and he would have remembered that man's crooked nose. It looked as though it had been broken several times.

"This one looks like the boy Ryker was talking about," said the man in an accent Hiccup didn't recognize. A few of the other men mumbled.

"Ryker will want the Night Fury, no doubt, and the boy to go with it," said the man. His dark gaze shifted from Hiccup to Astrid and his entire expression changed. "Look who decided to show her face again." He laughed, a vicious sound. "That beauty will fetch a nice price, dead or alive. Throw the dragon in the pen and put these two in a cell."

"What about the vampire?" one of the younger looking men asked.

"She'll be harmless for a while longer," he said. As the men removed the net the man reached inside and yanked Astrid by her arm. Her feet barely supported her weight. The man pushed her around like a doll. "See? She won't put up a fight."

He threw Astrid at one of the men who caught her, and lifted her by the same arm that the man had used. Hiccup tried to stand on his own. The man grabbed him by the front of his shirt and threw him onto the deck.

Toothless growled from his cage.

"This one is just a human," the man said.

Hiccup felt hands on his shoulders and then a sudden jerk to his feet. A sword poked him in the back, pushing him toward the stairs leading below deck. A man yanked Astrid along a few steps in front of him. Astrid could barely walk on the flat deck. When she began to descend the stairs, she fell. The man held her upright, forcing her to walk on her own. Torches lit the space in a pitiful, flickering light.

They threw Astrid into the first cell. It looked to be made out of the same greenish metal as the dragon hunters' equipment. Astrid collapsed to the floor with a yelp and stayed there. The man holding Hiccup pushed him hard into the next cell and slammed the door shut.

The man leaned into the metal door. Several of his rotting teeth were missing. "If it were up to me, I'd throw you in the same cell. She might get hungry later."

"Why not just do it?" Hiccup asked. Together they might be able to escape.

"If Ryker wants you alive, you'll be alive. Not my call."

The hunters vanished back above deck. Somewhere in the ship, Toothless warbled.

Hiccup stood up and walked to the cell door. The sturdy lock didn't budge. He looked down the short corridor. It wasn't as big as a regular dragon hunting ship. Half as many cells. That meant that Toothless was likely on the other side of the wall in a mirrored compartment for dragons.

In the cell beside him, Astrid propped herself up against the wooden wall. Her breathing came in shallow gasps.

"Astrid," he asked, kneeling down by the cage wall separating them.

She opened her eyes, tired and pained. "I'm sorry."

"For what? You didn't shoot us down."

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be here." She closed her eyes and cringed. "You shouldn't be here."

Hiccup felt a pang in his chest, deep inside. Astrid was in pain, again. She'd wanted to go home and the hunters wouldn't leave her alone. They insisted on causing her pain. She struggled to move toward the metal grate.

"Don't move," Hiccup said. "I'll get us out of this."

"How?" she asked, slumping against the wall.

He didn't have the answer.

Astrid sighed. "If the hunters don't kill me, your friends will."

"Maybe," Hiccup said, and for once hoped they hadn't listened to him, "they followed and are planning a counterattack as we speak."

Astrid cracked her eyes at him. "What are the odds of that?"

High, he'd like to think. He shrugged. "What about you? You said that someone might come looking for you. What are the odds that your friends will save you?"

She tried to laugh, but couldn't. "Not very high. They might already assume me dead. It's hard to say."

"Those don't seem like very good friends."

"I didn't say they were."

The ship rocked with a wild wave, flickering the lanterns. Hiccup leaned back against the wall of his cell. He couldn't even tell which direction they were heading. If they were lucky, the hunters wouldn't kill him or Toothless until they reached Ryker, or Viggo, and then they would have to transport them. That might be the only chance to escape they'd have.

What about Astrid? He couldn't leave her here, not like this. How could he get her out of his without getting anyone killed?

Right now, his first order of business was to sleep. He'd be useless if he stayed awake all night. Astrid looked as if she slept in the cell beside him. She closed her eyes, slumped against the wall, and took her breaths one at a time. Hiccup leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. It took a long while for his exhaustion to overcome his panic and fear of not waking up.

Hiccup did sleep, a stressful, fitful sleep, and woke up to the sound of something falling close to his face.

"Meal time," said a gruff looking guard on the other side of his cell door. A half loaf of bread, stale by the look, lay on the floor by his leg.

The guard stalked back to the stairs. Sunshine shone down from the door to the upper deck. The door slammed, taking the sunshine with it.

Hiccup reached for the bread. Stale. He tore off a piece and checked it for mold, then stuffed it into his mouth. He crawled over to Astrid's cell. She didn't look like she'd moved. Her chested heaved in uneven breaths. The guards hadn't left her anything to eat.

"Astrid?" he asked.

Her eyes opened. "Still alive."

"Do you want any?" Hiccup asked, wiggling the bread.

She smiled, a pitiful expression that tore at that place in his chest. "Thank you, but no. I don't need to eat food anymore."

"But," Hiccup began, looking at the bread. "You don't have to eat at all?"

She gently shook her head. "No. I can, but it would be a waste. That's another downside of being a vampire. I don't enjoy the big feasts anymore." Her smiled widened and her eyes drifted off in a dreamily gaze. "I remember the smell of roasting mutton. My mother used to season it and roast it for hours over the fire. It smelled so good it made my mouth water."

"Does it taste different?"

"Yes and no," she said, each word a labor. "I can still taste it, but it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't fill my stomach like it used to. My body doesn't need it. It doesn't…use it like it did. It doesn't need to."

"Now I really wish I'd talked those guys into letting you stay another night," Hiccup said. "Then we could have sat around the clubhouse and you could have told Fishlegs all of this. This ship might have moved on by morning."

"I doubt it," she said. "These guys are persistent bastards. They might have been waiting since they lost me the first time."

"How did they know where we'd be?"

"They know around where home is," she said.

"And the hunters know here the Edge is," Hiccup said, suddenly understanding. "Of course, Ryker could have told them. It wouldn't have been hard to figure out the path we'd take. Damn it."

"It's not your fault," Astrid said, barely a whisper.

Hiccup sighed. He leaned back against his cell wall. He ate another chunk of his bread, and another, until he'd finished half of it. Astrid had fallen asleep in the meantime. With sleep, her pain eased, and she no longer grimaced as she took each breath.

The ship rocked and thunder sounded close by. The storm had reached them. That meant the hunters were headed west. They had a night's travel on anyone that might follow. He leaned back against the cell. How was he supposed to get out of this one?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm uploading a bunch of these chapters on the same day. They're already on FFN so I don't see why not. Leave a comment and let me know what you think about it so far. I'd love to hear from you!


	7. Fun with Dragon Hunters

Hiccup woke up from his uneasy nap as another half loaf of bread fell into his cell. He sat up as the hunters walked to Astrid's cell and unlocked the door.

For the third time since their capture, the hunters took a poisoned arrow and sliced it along Astrid's upper arm. She winced, still weak from the poison that coursed through her body, debilitating her every move. They dropped her onto the floor and slammed her cell door back in its place.

If his calculations were right, they had been in the ship's hold a week now. The other riders would be hysterical. They would assume Astrid a liar and that she had killed Hiccup. They would be searching. They would have sent word back to Berk. His father would be in a state. Berk would turn upside down with the news that Hiccup had been slain by a vampire.

Hiccup looked sideways at Astrid. She'd gone a week without eating, without sleeping more than an hour at a time. She looked a ripe mess, sickly pale and half-drugged, heavy eyes and hard breaths.

Just like each morning, he leaned toward her cell and offered her some of the bread.

Like each morning, she declined. This morning she barely moved. She squeezed her eyes shut and winced, curling into herself. Hiccup slowly ate his bread. He'd had seven days to think of a plan and he'd come up with nothing.

Hiccup fell out of his thoughts at the sound of an approaching ship. His heart leapt at the idea that a Berk ship had found them, or even Trader Johann. By the corralling above deck, he knew neither of those things could be true. The men were far too accepting of this ship's crew. Other hunters, most likely.

Footsteps approached the door leading into the cells. "They're both down below."

The door opened and the ship's captain stepped down, followed by a man that made Hiccup want to vomit his breakfast.

"Hiccup," said Viggo, taking the lead into the hall. He held his hands behind his back and carried himself as if nothing could touch him. He stood in front of Hiccup's cell door and his dark eyes settled on him. "You've lowered your standard for company, I see."

Viggo glanced toward Astrid who hadn't acknowledge his presence.

"You see, Hiccup, that creature isn't human, no matter how human they appear in body or mind. They are vicious monsters that feed off of us. They see us humans as nothing more than a meal."

"What do you want?" Hiccup asked. If he could get him to open the door, he could try to escape.

"I have a buyer to the south who would pay a fine price for a pair of vampire fangs," Viggo said, eyeing Astrid. "The blood of a vampire is said to have extraordinary healing properties. Healers would benefit greatly from it. Humans would benefit."

"I didn't know vampires had blood," Hiccup said. If he kept Viggo talking, maybe a brilliant plan would happen up on him, something to turn the tide in his favor.

"Oh, they do," he said. "I've been told by my companions to the north that they will drink each other's blood from time to time. Like I said, horrible, vile abominations."

Viggo waved his hand toward Astrid's cell. The door opened with a thin squeak but Astrid didn't move. Viggo walked inside and knelt down beside her, flanked by men on either side, both armed. He reached down and grabbed Astrid's jaw and wrenched her head to face him. He shoved his fingers into her mouth and pried her lips apart.

"Look at those," Viggo said, fingering Astrid's pronounced fangs.

Hiccup felt his heart fall into his stomach. He hadn't thought about what he would do if he and Astrid were separated. He couldn't rescue her if he didn't know where she was.

"Take this one," Viggo said to his men. He stood up and wiped his hand on his shirt.

The hunter lifted Astrid in his arms and carried her above deck and out of sight.

"Now, Hiccup," Viggo said, walking back around to Hiccup's door. "What should I do with you?"

Hiccup blinked and brought his attention to Viggo. His dark brows twitched and something devious in his eyes wormed through Hiccup's unsettled panic.

"Are you worried about that vampire?" Viggo asked, raising a brow. "She will likely die, of course. A vampire without fangs can't hunt. If they cannot hunt, they will starve."

"Where's Toothless?"

"Oh, I'm taking the Night Fury as well," Viggo said. "He is being loading onto the ship as we speak. If I can sell a Night Fury and vampire fangs, I will be set for life. This isn't a deal I'm willing to miss out on. It's you that I'm uncertain about."

"Me?"

"Yes, you," Viggo said with a sigh. "I don't know what to do with you. I could leave you here and let these fine hunters sell you in the slave markets, although I'm not sure how much a boy like you would fetch."

Hiccup tightened his fists. If Viggo left with Toothless and Astrid, he'd not stand a chance of seeing either of them again. The very thought plummeted his heart into his stomach. No, he needed to go with Viggo, too.

"However," Viggo said, thoughts racing behind his dark eyes. "I have an idea of what to do with you, an experiment of sorts. Something I've always heard about but never seen."

"I can only imagine," Hiccup said drily.

Viggo smirked. He turned away from Hiccup's cell and motioned to the door. "Take him, too."

Hiccup said nothing as the hunter unlocked the door and reached inside to grab him. They secured his arms in tight ropes before taking him above deck.

The sudden sunlight stung his eyes; he couldn't imagine how Astrid felt. He blinked quickly and took in as much of his surroundings as he could. Water. In every direction. No landmarks or constellations for guidance.

Hiccup was shoved onto the gangplank and onto Viggo's ship.

"Astrid?" Hiccup said at once.

Astrid had not been taken below deck. Instead, she sat in a cage in the bright sun.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup said, halting the trek toward the lower deck's cells. "She'll die like that!"

"Not for a while," Viggo said. He eyed Astrid's cage. He tapped it with this sword. She didn't move. "The sun depletes their energy much more efficiently that the dragon root. Unlike the poison, the sun won't kill her, only weaken her to the point of uselessness."

The hunter grabbed Hiccup's hair and forced him blow deck. He tripped on the second to last stair and fell. The hunter let go and let him tumble down.

Toothless growled; Hiccup looked up at once. Toothless stood, muzzled and chained, in a cell down the hall. He wiggled, rattling the chains.

"Toothless," Hiccup called, but had no time. The hunter yanked him back to his feet and threw him in a cell away from Toothless.

He stumbled and hit the back wall with his shoulder. The cell door slammed. The hunters retreated to the upper deck. Hiccup's heart beat uncontrollably. He had to think of something fast.

X

Night came. The light that seeped from around the door to the upper deck slowly vanished. The door opened and the hunters came down, one of them carried Astrid. Hiccup stood as they came down the stairs. She looked worse.

The hunters tossed her into the cell beside his. The door shut and locked and the hunters left without a word. Hiccup knelt down by the wall between Astrid and himself.

"Astrid?"

The only sign that she was still alive was her breathing. Slow, unsteady breaths rose in her chest every few moments.

"Astrid, can you hear me?"

She twisted, her limp body falling onto its side. Her eyes partially opened. Red trimmed the blue, a bloody red that he had seen the first time they met. It looked worse now. Those eyes sent a shiver down his spine, one rooted in fear.

Hiccup reached through the metal bars and to her. "Astrid?"

Her eyes flickered to his hand, and then she flinched away so violently that Hiccup wrenched his hand back into his cage, knocking his knuckles on the metal.

"I-I'm sorry," Hiccup said. Had he hurt her?

She hissed as she turned away from him, fangs bared.

Hiccup understood. She'd been starved by the hunters. She needed to eat and he just stuck his arm, full of fresh blood, into her easy reach.

"It's alright," he said.

"I don't want to hurt you." She spoke so softly, in a wisp of a breath, that he almost thought he'd imagined her words.

"It wouldn't be your fault," he said. He held his wrist in his other hand. She could have grabbed him, latched onto him, but she didn't. Even though she was starving, and in pain, she refrained from hurting him.

Astrid curled into herself again. A soft whimper escaped her. From the other side of the hall, Toothless warbled lowly.

"I know, bud," Hiccup said, even though he couldn't see him. He wanted to help Astrid, too, but didn't know how.

X

Dawn broke over Dragon's Edge. Fishlegs had gone through the notes left from the Dragon Eye several times that night. The pages scattered the clubhouse's table. He heard the whoosh and the following thump on the deck outside.

"Anything?" Fishlegs asked before he turned to see who it was. He already knew.

"Nothing," Heather spat. She jumped off of Windshear's back and stomped into the clubhouse. "I knew we should have followed them."

Fishlegs looked down at his notes. The letters moved about on the page.

"Are you alright?" Heather appeared at his side and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm just tired."

"Have you slept?"

He sighed. "No. I can't. I've tried, but I can't stop thinking that maybe I missed something in the notes, anything, a hint of a location. But I can't find anything."

Fishlegs reached for a piece of paper, but Heather stopped him. She reached for his hand and held it between hers. "I'll take over the watch. Get some sleep."

"What if it doesn't matter how long we search?" Fishlegs asked. "What if you were right and she already killed him? Then none of this matters."

Heather wanted to agree with him, wanted to rant and rave like she had the first few days of Hiccup's disappearance, but she held it in. "Either we will find Hiccup or find that bitch and make her pay for what she's done. But we can't do that if you're falling asleep in the saddle."

"I know," Fishlegs nodded. His scatterbrain remembered and he jumped, grabbed a rolled piece of paper from his belt. "This came this morning from Berk. Trader Johann hasn't seen or heard of Hiccup, Toothless, or a blonde vampire either. From the way Gobber described it, Stoick's going mad over there. They've sent word to the other tribes to be on the lookout."

"See?" Heather said, taking the note from his hand and laying it on the table. "Stoick's got the entire archipelago on the lookout. If Hiccup is out there, someone will see him. If that vampire shows up anywhere, we'll find out about it."

Fishlegs nodded. She was right, as usual. "He said Stoick's put a high price on her head."

"And gold with entice more people to search her out instead of waiting for her to come to them."

"People have already been showing up with random blonde women, but none of them have been vampires."

Heather ushered him toward the door to the clubhouse, neither pushing nor pulling. "We will find her. And him. Don't worry, Fishlegs."

Heather escorted him all the way down the gangplank and to his hut on the ground. She urged him through the door and didn't leave until he'd situated himself on his bed. She left with a kiss on the cheek, and shut the door behind her.

Fishlegs stared up at the ceiling. Meatlug still slept, a bundle in the corner. He wanted to sleep, too, until this entire ordeal blew over. If only he could sleep and wake up when Hiccup came back with a long, dramatic story of how he got lost, or how he and Toothless lost the tail piece on the way back and were stranded until he could make a new one.

He wanted desperately to believe that Hiccup was out there, somewhere, just waiting for the chance to return to the Edge. He wanted to. His gut told him that those beliefs were foolish. People left and didn't always return.

X

Hiccup came to by the sound of a squeaking cell door. He blinked the sleep from his eyes. A hunter carried Astrid past his door.

"Where are you going?" he asked, sleep nulling the edges of his words. He stumbled to the door. "Hey, where are you taking her?"

Viggo appeared in the door as the hunter vanished. "Don't you worry about that, Hiccup. You'll be going to the same place."

Hunters lined outside of his sell door, spears and crossbows at the ready, aimed at him.

"I wouldn't try anything," Viggo said. "Your dragon is captured. You pose little threat to me. Your life means nothing to me right now."

A hunter stepped forward and unlocked the cell door. Another hunter stepped inside and pushed Hiccup forward, toward the armed hunters. Hiccup took a step forward, out of the cell, when darkness rushed over his eyes. The hunter thrust a black bag over his head.

"Hey!" he shouted, falling backward.

The dark cloth covered his nose and mouth, making his panicked breaths harder. The hunter tightened the ropes around his wrists. Hiccup tried to struggle, but stopped at the poke of a spear.

"Let's go," one of the hunters shouted.

The pushed Hiccup forward, out of cell. He stumbled on the stairs with his metal leg. The bright sun penetrated the black bag, but he saw no better. He walked across the deck and to a gangplank, and for a heart wrenching moment he feared being thrown overboard. Someone walked in front of him, a hunter, and Hiccup followed his footsteps as close as possible.

He walked down the wooden gangplank and onto solid, stony ground. The hunter behind he pushed him forward, guiding him with a hand on his shoulder and a spear at his back. Birds cawed overhead, gulls by the sound, and somewhere Terrible Terrors chittered. The sunlight ended abruptly and the footsteps on the stone began to echo. A cave.

They walked steadily downward. Hiccup kept his pace with the hunters, mostly to keep the spear from piercing through spine. Water dripped. A cool drop hit the top of his head. Firelight passed by on the other side of the black bag, designated as glowing coming and going.

Hiccup tried to calm his racing heartbeat. He'd been in worse situations before and gotten out, right?

The hunter walking beside him yanked him to a halt. Wind rushed by somewhere on the other side of the cave, whooshing through the trees in a roar. Maybe it was water, an underground stream.

The hand on his shoulder pushed him down, forcing him to his knees.

The spear at his back poked him, reminding him of its presence.

Hiccup thought about his breaths, in and out, trying to calm himself. The rushing changed, beating almost, like drums, like applause.

His entire body stiffened. It was not the wind he heard, or a stream. It was the shouting, chaotic sound of a crowd, an audience.


	8. On the Stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a tiny amount of violence headed your way. It's not graphic.

The crowd shouted louder and louder. Hiccup sat on his knees and masked, at the mercy of whatever fate Viggo deemed worthy.

Footsteps approached. "Viggo is ready for the boy."

A rough, strong hand grabbed Hiccup's arm and lifted him onto his feet like he weighed less than a feather. The man grunted, horrid breath exhaling into the still cavern air. He pulled Hiccup forward along the cavern, toward the crowd. Hiccup stumbled over his feet, trying to walk in pace with the hunter.

Muffles cheers, hundreds of jeering voices, became louder by the step.

"Where are you taking me?" Hiccup asked.

The hunter grunted. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Come on," Hiccup said. "Not even a hint?"

The man spat. "You want to play with vampires? We'll let you play with vampires."

"That's not a very good hint."

"It's not a hint."

The man came to a halt, jerking Hiccup forward and then back a step. Several feet moved around them, more than there were before. They passed in front of him, smelling like human stink and sweat and the sea.

The sound of a heavy metal lever smacked into Hiccup's ears and he jumped. Gears churned around gears, metal ground against metal, clicking and lifting; a sharp creaking pushed against the air. Wood creaked against the stone floor. A draft rushed passed.

In his mind, Hiccup imagined huge, wooden doors opening and the terrible jaws of a hungry dragons waiting.

The chugging and creaking stopped and the hunter pushed Hiccup forward with a strong, bruising punch to the shoulder blade. Hiccup stumbled, fell forward, and rolled onto his knees. A roaring crowd echoed on stone walls all around him. Light flickered through the black bag, torches.

Hiccup wiggled his wrists against the ropes, but it did no good. His heart raced faster with each passing moment. Not good. Not at all. He very well could die here and never see it coming.

"My fellows," boomed an all-too-familiar cadence. Viggo. "You were promised a show. A show you shall receive."

The crowd shouted, hollered, and roared in a deafening enthusiasm. No one stood around Hiccup. Viggo spoke from somewhere else, somewhere higher, somewhere safe. Hiccup couldn't control his breathing, his pulse hammered.

"This boy before you wants to play with vampires," Viggo said to the crowd.

Boos and curses emitted all around.

"We know what vampires can do," Viggo said. "They are nothing but inhuman beasts, abominations on this world, unnatural."

The roaring crowd rose to an ear-splitting level. Cheers, agreements, and shouts shook the cavern. Hiccup imagined stands like the dragon arena, dragon hunters packed inside, angry firsts in the air, ready for blood. A shiver ran down his spine.

"But I say," Viggo said, mimicking the words of the hunter a few moments ago. "Let him play."

The crowd roared. A hand grabbed Hiccup's shoulder and another ripped the bag from his head. The dim light of the high-mounted torches lit the large space and for a moment blinded him. He knelt in an underground arena. The stone walls arched upward and came together in a shadowed dome. The uneven floor had several dark stains that looked dangerously like blood.

Dragon hunters lined the arena's sides, hundreds of them, leaning against the fence and looking down at Hiccup.

Ryker stood behind him, holding the black bag in his hand. He thrust the bag at a hunter just inside the wide wooden doors, the ones that Hiccup came through, and produced a dagger from his belt.

"Going to slice my throat?" Hiccup said. The torchlight flickered off the dagger. "Just like that? Not much of a show."

Ryker laughed. "I wouldn't do you so much of a favor, boy. No, your death will be much more entertaining."

Ryker bent down and grabbed Hiccup by the arm. He sliced through the ropes binding his wrists, nicking him. Ryker turned around and walked back through the wooden doors with the rest of the hunters. The clunky gears turned, shutting the doors, leaving Hiccup alone in the arena.

He stood, and brought his hands around to his front. He rubbed his stinging wrist. A tiny red line appeared where Ryker had cut him.

All around him, hunters looked down at him like a hungry Viking looks at roasting mutton. On the other side of the arena stood a similar door to the one he came through. Metal reinforced it, securing the wooden edges and barring it. When the crowd waned, Hiccup thought he heard shouts coming from the other side, muffled and agitated.

A dragon? Hiccup swallowed. Viggo knew Hiccup wasn't good with every type of dragon, especially the angry ones that already hated humans.

"My fellows," Viggo shouted from a prime seat above the arena. "Are you ready?"

The booming cheers echoed off the stone. Feet stomped. Voices shrieked. Hiccup's legs shook underneath him, threatening to send him back to the floor.

"Open the gate," Viggo shouted.

The shouts in the room exploded.

The door on the other side creaked and whined, and slowly began to open. Hiccup's pulse quickened, if it could go any faster. He couldn't take his eyes away from the opening doors, away from whatever lay inside.

Hiccup's heart fell and his breath left him. On the other side of the doors, two hunters stood on either side of a tall cage that connected to the doors. Inside that cage stood Astrid. She looked awake, alive, but more monstrous than he'd ever seen. Her dirty hair frazzled around her face. Her wide eyes held no blue, only black and red. Her skin had gone utterly white, taut and deathly.

The only thing between Hiccup and Astrid was a metal door on the cage that held her.

The Astrid that he had met, the sweet vampire, cautious and lovely, had been starved and tortured into a frenzied monster, desperate to survive. Her blood-red eyes settled on Hiccup and a drop of cold sweat ran down his scalp. A sting on his wrist brought his attention to his hands, to where Ryker had seemingly carelessly nicked him with the dagger.

Viggo was never careless.

"Shit," Hiccup said, eyes on the tiny ready mark.

"Release her," called Viggo.

Hiccup's heart skipped with those words. The crowd erupted, all standing on their feet.

The gate separating Astrid from the arena slid from the metal. Within seconds, she bolted from her cage and into the arena, much to the grand applause from the crowd. Her red eyes followed Hiccup as he tried to move, tried to find somewhere in the empty arena to wait her out.

She stared at him, closing the space between them, fangs bared.

He put his hands up in front him, pleading, "Astrid, wait!"

She didn't listen. She jumped the last space, tackling him to the ground. She straddled his hips, pinning him to the ground. Her shaking hands gripped his arms, pushing them to the side. She bared her fangs, awful things in the light; she drooled. Her hot breath brushed against his face.

She hesitated.

"Astrid," Hiccup said.

The torchlight shadowed her face. Hiccup kept his gaze on her eyes. Desperation flooded her, taking over with instinct. The blue eyes were in there, he knew it, and he dared not look away in case the reappeared in her hesitation.

"Astrid, it's me," Hiccup said. "Listen to me. It's me, Hiccup."

Her chest heaved. Her entire body shook.

"You promised not to kill me," he said.

Astrid squeezed her eyes shut. She let out a terrible groan. She grunted; a hoarse cough bubbled up her throat.

The crowd booed the uneventful show. They had come for bloody, merciless killing.

Her grip on his arms tightened. She swallowed, moving her entire throat. Hiccup panted; her hesitation had not decreased his panic. His eyes fell to her collarbone. It had not been so pronounced when they first met. Neither had her cheekbones.

"Astrid," he repeated her name.

She flinched, growling to herself, every part of her body twitching and shaking. She inhaled, a rough sound. Water glistened along the bottom of her eyelids. She bent down to his face, hot breath against his lips, and nudged his head to the side with her own. Her cold lips met the skin of his neck.

He felt the points of her fangs, pressure, and a sickening pop as her teeth sank into his neck. Blood rushed out of him and she suckled it away before any could spill onto the floor. He felt it leave his body, felt the heaviness it left behind. Nausea danced in his stomach. His vision blackened, edging into the dangerous tunnels.

He didn't feel her pull out. He saw her, blood dripping down both sides of her skin, skin regaining her healthy complexion. Realization sunk into her eyes. Panic stretched across her face. Tears glistened. She shouted, but he didn't hear the words.

Behind her, the ceiling burst. Bits of rock shook the floor as it fell. Astrid bent over him, but he saw nothing more. Everything went black.

X

Hiccup stood on a beach. White sand stretched out on either side of him, vanishing into the blurry blue horizon. The calm ocean stretched out forever, blue-green water crashing into itself, splashing and spraying. The sun above warmed and a bright breeze fluttered his hair. Behind him, green plains stretched into forever, blurring blue-gray with the far side of the sky.

He walked inland and onto the moist, soft grass, unlike anything he'd seen. The grass, warmed by the sun, stuck up between his bare toes.

Hiccup bent down and touched the bare feet that he stood on – his feet, both of them, with all ten toes touching the grass. He wrapped his fingers around his left foot, as flesh and blood as the other. He felt it. It felt the grass, the warmth of the earth, and the grit of the sand.

What? Hiccup opened his mouth to speak, but the word did not leave his mouth. He spoke again, a wordless sound, but no noise came from him.

He felt for his mouth, still there.

Why can't I speak?

His mouth moved. His throat hummed.

Curious, he brought his hands outward and slammed them together. He should have heard a slap as his hands collided, but no sound penetrated the air. He turned to face the ocean. He heard the ocean, the waves crashing, the water splashing, the wind pushing against the water. The wind rushed through the grass, whistling and sighing.

Hiccup again felt himself, his body felt real. The world felt real around him.

He took several more steps, eyes on the left foot that he shouldn't have, across the green plain to the edge of a thin woods, where trees grew only a bit taller than him with thin, spindly branches and sparse leaves.

No birds chirp. No bugs buzzed. No life made any sound. Hiccup scanned the trees for any sign of life, for animal and scat on the ground. Nothing.

Hiccup walked through the trees. No twig or rock struck his feet. On the other side of the thin trees, the world turned into a blue-green haze. Plains, spotted with thick brush and wild vegetation, stretched out forever, until it ended at a mountain range so far in the distance that it looked like low clouds.

Hiccup had seen mountains before. Those were no clouds.

The vastness of this island took him by surprise. He looked back through the trees. The ocean lay behind him, blueish spec between the branches, a distant rush of water.

Where was everyone else? Did Toothless not come with him?

At that moment, his uncertainty bothered him. He did not remember arriving here or leaving Dragon's Edge. Somehow, in a perplexing way that he might never understand, he knew that Toothless was not on the island with him. No one was. However he arrived, he had arrived alone.

Hiccup stepped onto the next plain and started toward the mountain. Answers where there, the strange sense of knowing told him so in his head. He knew these vague things, but did not know how. The more he thought about the mountain, the more he knew that he should be there, not here.

He started to run through the ankle-high weeds. They did not trip or snare him. The wind came from behind him, pushing him along. He ran faster than he ever had before, faster than he thought himself capable, but didn't feel the tightness in his legs or breathlessness. He kept running without stopping.

He ran across the plain and through a small forest, up and down a small hill and onto another plain. He ran for what felt like hours, without heaving a single breath. He laughed, even though he could not hear it. He felt the air bubble in his chest.

When he did stop, it was to survey the world around him. He could no longer see or hear the ocean. Greenery rose on all sides, hills and plains and forests, all green and blue.

The mountains looked as distant as they had before. Had he not gotten any closer? He took up his quick pace again, running toward the mountains. He didn't know how long he ran, time felt lost in this strange world. He stopped again after what felt like a tremendous amount of time. The mountains had not gotten any closer. They hung in the distance as if attached to the sky, gray-blue blurs.

The ground underneath him seemed to fall out. He stumbled off his balance and fell to the soft ground. He ran his hand along the soft grass, too soft, strangely soft.

Suddenly, the grass turned hard. It struck his hands and feet like spikes. He jumped up but had nowhere to stand, nowhere to fall. The sky above churned, clouds turned in on each other and morphed into a bloody red. He heard rain but saw none, felt none.

The spikes and red sky vanished at once; Hiccup felt only darkness.

"He's coming around."

"Ready? I've got the puke bucket."

"Stop it."

Hiccup swirled through a mess of blackness. A surge of white light burst through his vision, stinging his eyes. He flinched to cover his eyes but something held his limbs.

"Hey," someone said, "Look at me, kid."

A blurry someone entered his vision, a brow-haired someone, and with each blink the woman became clearer. She wore dark clothes and held a clay cup in her hand. Someone else stood just outside of his sight, a man by the looks.

"He looks alright, just out of it," she said.

A hunger like he'd never felt tore through his entire body, wrenching his inside into terrible shapes.

The woman grabbed his chin and held the cup to his lips. The strong odor of the cup's contents met his noise and the hunger pains surged upward, a dry heave threatened, and he firmly held his lips closed.

"Drink it," she said sternly. "You'll feel better. Trust me."

"Do what she says," the man said. "Or she'll dump it down your throat."

The woman shushed him. She turned her attention back to Hiccup and her thumb rubbed his jawline. "Drink it."

The thick liquid touched his upper lip. He opened his mouth a little and the syrupy drink flowed onto his tongue. A bittersweet, tangy taste filled his mouth. He swallowed. The unease shrunk. His hunger sated. He drank more, opened his mouth wide and drank greedily, until the cup at his lips was empty.

"Good boy," said the woman.

He licked his lips. He needed more. His eyes fell on the cup the woman held.

As if reading his thoughts, she handed the cup to the man and said, "Eret, fill this back up. We'll need another meal before the hour's up."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, and walked through the shadows of Hiccup's vision.

"Rest, if you can," the woman said, hand on his head. "Tonight will be the worst, but it will get better each time."


	9. The Morning After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we're caught up to the story as it's been published on FanFiction. I know I've been pumping out chapters on here, but these were alreayd done and posted, so it was just a matter of bringing them over. From here on out I'll be posting one at a time, once a week or two. Until then, enjoy!

What had she done?

Astrid sat on the edge of her bed. She hadn't slept. She couldn't. Each time she closed her eyes she saw Hiccup, pale and bloodless, looking up at her like the monster everyone else thought she was.

The fire crackled in the stone fireplace. The crystals embedded in the ceiling shone with absorbed light and cast the entire room a bluish glow. It felt so different from the outside, from the real sun. Each time she came home it felt like entering a different world.

Astrid tried to focus on the dark candelabra, the unlit wicks, the frozen wax mid-drip, but her thoughts kept retuning to Hiccup. His green eyes stained the back of her eyelids. His laugh infected her lungs.

He'd been different than the humans she'd met, or known. She'd spared him because of that, asked him for help, trusted him. He trusted her and she…

A knock on the wooden door interrupted her thoughts.

"Go away," she said to whoever stood on the other side. "I'm not in the mood for a lecture."

The door opened anyway and Eret stepped inside, a full cup of blood in his hands. Astrid looked between it and him.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, aren't you a ray of moonlight," he said with that cocky grin of his. The tattoo on his broad chin shifted.

She chuckled. "If you didn't hear, I've pissed off the entire clan."

"Oh, I heard about that," Eret said with a laugh. "Hard not to. I don't think I've seen Denarius that pissed before. Good job. I don't think I could have done a better job myself."

Astrid glared at him. Eret swirled the cup of blood in his hand. Eret didn't gloat on purpose; she'd known him long enough to see when he had something else on his mind.

"What do you want, Eret?" Astrid asked.

"Is it true what they're saying?" Eret asked, drawing out his time.

"It's hard to know," she said. "They're saying a lot about me right now."

"You and that human," he said. He looked down into the blood in his hand. "It's been said through the grapevine that you've got it bad for him."

Astrid huffed. "It's not like that."

"Then why is your face red?" Eret smiled. He leaned over the cup and whispered, "Is he better than me?"

Her face burned. "We haven't done anything like that."

Eret laughed. "Right."

"We haven't," Astrid repeated.

He laughed again, this time out of disbelief. "You mean to tell me that you've just been dragging this human around for the hell of it? Why would a hot vampire like yourself keep a twig like him if you're not using him for a good fuck and suck?"

"Eret!" Astrid jumped to her feet, fists balled, ready to shut his mouth for him. She punched at him, but he moved, careful not to spill the blood he carried. Astrid stood between him and the door. She released her fists and held her hands out to him, pleading for him to understand. "It's not like that. He helped me. I helped him. Hunters attacked. That's all that happened."

Eret didn't say anything for a moment, considering.

"I didn't…" Astrid started, but she couldn't find the words. "I didn't mean to. Viggo, he…"

"I know," Eret said. "I was there, remember?"

She nodded. Eret had been the one to lift her from the ground when she couldn't feel her legs anymore.

Vampires had swarmed on Viggo's arena, breaking in through the ceiling, and put a stop to his "show." Hunters attacked and vampires fought back, swords and teeth and blood splatters. She had bent over Hiccup, protecting him from the mess. Eret pulled her away from him and someone lifted Hiccup's limp body. She remembered screaming.

Eret stepped closer to her, cup of blood extended to her.

She took it, cautiously. "What?"

"He's awake, by the way," Eret said, pointing toward the doorway. "Mamie's in there with him right now."

She nearly dropped the cup. "What? Why did she not tell me?"

"She was a bit busy," Eret said. "And she didn't want you in there. She made me promise not to mention it, but honesty's not my best quality. And you're supposed to be on house arrest for a while."

Astrid looked down at the cup. "This was for him?"

"That's his second," Eret said. "He drank the first one like water."

Her breaths came faster. She feared Hiccup dead, but couldn't bring herself to ask anyone.

"I bribed Bjorn, so there's no one watching to make sure you stay in your room right now," Eret said, crossing his thick arms. He stepped around Astrid and into the hall. He nodded, and leaned back into the doorway. "Yup still gone."

Astrid pushed against his shoulder. "Get out of the way."

Eret blinked, and straightened his broad shoulders, blocking the doorway entirely. "What was that?"

Astrid balled a fist. "Move or I'll knock your teeth out."

Eret smiled. "There's the Astrid I know. In all honesty, that weepy-bitch that's been in your room was getting on my nerves. She's no fun."

Astrid bit back nice things that she could say to him. She didn't want compliments or sediments going to his head. He'd never been one for either. Instead she gave him a quick smile of gratitude, and ran past him and into the stone-floored corridor, keeping the cup of blood steady. Eret didn't follow.

The same crystals lit the entire castle, aided here and there by candles or fires, and shined off the artifacts and armor and lined the corridor walls. She knew where they would have taken Hiccup, the infirmary on the far side of the castle.

She didn't stop even when someone called her name. She raced down the stairs and into the infirmary wing, and past a curious vampire standing outside the door.

"No one's allowed inside," he tried to say, but Astrid ignored him.

At once, Astrid knew something was wrong. The infirmary was quiet. Mamie stood at the foot of a bed hidden from Astrid's view by a patched curtain. A candle flicked on a nearby table in the corner. Mamie turned her attention from the bed, scowled, and placed her hands on her hips.

"Well," Mamie said. "I thought you'd be here sooner."

"How is he?" Astrid asked, words shaking.

"Sleeping," Mamie said.

Astrid took cautious steps toward Mamie, cup in hand. Mamie didn't say word as Astrid peered around the curtain.

Hiccup lay in the bed, sickly looking, with his limbs bound to the bedside. His fingers twitched in his sleep, his legs flinched. The sheet draped over his right foot and where his left should had mirrored it, the sheet lay flat. His metal leg sat on a shelve carved into the stone wall along with his leather cuirass.

His bloodstained red shirt had been thrown into a chair. Hiccup wore a simple shirt instead. The collar of his new shirt ran below his collar bone. Two dark dots on the side of his neck rattled her insides. Astrid felt the world shift around her.

Mamie took the blood from Astrid's hand and set it on the bedside table. "He'll wake up any time now and need this."

Astrid sank down against wall, hand over her mouth. Between her fingers she caught a faint flowery smell. She removed her hand from her face. The smell diminished. She sniffed her fingers, the flowery scent returned. The hand that smelled had been the one to hold the cup.

"What is in that?" Astrid asked, pointing to the cup. "It smells like flowers."

Mamie nodded. "I asked Eret to lace the blood with oleander to help the boy sleep. Better to sleep through it."

Astrid swallowed. The world shifted uncomfortably. "So he's turning?"

"Yes."

Astrid flattened her hands against the wall to remind her mind that the stone didn't move. Astrid took her eyes off Hiccup and found a crack on the floor to stare at.

"I've never turned anyone," Mamie said, leaning on the wall beside Astrid. "But I've heard that it's not a nice feeling to have."

"It's my fault," Astrid said. "If it wasn't for me he wouldn't be here. He'd be at home with his friends."

"Speaking of friends," Mamie said, pointing at finger at Astrid. "When we set the dragons Viggo had free, the Night Fury insisted on coming with us. I hear he's down below with the other dragons."

"Toothless is Hiccup's dragon," Astrid said.

"What?"

It took a breathless moment to explain what she knew of the dragon riders she'd met.

"They all ride dragons?" Mamie asked in disbelief.

"I guess so."

Mamie laughed. "I suppose some humans aren't as bad as others."

Hiccup cringed in his sleep, his fists balled and his entire body contorted, shaking in the restraints.

Astrid choked back a whimper. She remembered when she turned. She hadn't been at the castle. She'd been hiding in a barn when it started, without anyone, with her only refuge a pile of straw. She suffered through the worst of it alone. At the time she felt certain she would die there. Fire seared through her veins, freezing, tearing, stitching…horrible pain, like her body tore itself apart and needled it back together, one drop of blood at a time, organ by organ. The effects lingered for months.

"The council isn't happy," Mamie said. "But I'm sure you figured that one out on your own."

"I didn't do it on purpose," Astrid argued.

"I know that, and they know that," Mamie said. "Viggo made you. I know. It's as much his fault as anyone else's."

"What will they do?" Astrid asked. Mamie had more experience in the vampire hierarchy and politics that she did.

Mamie shrugged. "They won't kill you, if that's your worst case scenario. They won't kill one of their own. They won't kill him either. We've all kind of fallen into the family through circumstances we couldn't control. They know that. Shit happens. He's one of us now, that is if he can survive the turning."

Astrid looked down to Hiccup. He's one of them, a vampire, family.

"He'll most likely be your charge when he's awake," Mamie said.

Astrid blinked at Mamie. She'd heard that word thrown around, but no one had bothered to explain it.

"You are in charge of him," Mamie said. "Teaching him the ways. Showing him how to hunt, how to control himself when he misses a meal or two, and how everything in his new world works. He's your charge, your responsibility, like you were to me."

Astrid nodded. "Am I old enough?"

Mamie shrugged. "They could give him to Eret if they think you're too young. But I believe you're greater in their favor. You're more responsible than he is. And women make better teachers."

"That makes sense," Astrid said. Eret had been the youngest vampire until Astrid, only a few years older than she. Now Hiccup took the title of 'baby.' He would hate it, of course, as they all had.

"Now," Mamie said, leaning in closer to Astrid. "Tell me what the hell happened. From the beginning."

Astrid inhaled. It felt so long ago. "We were hunting and the hunters surprised us. They shot me and dragged me back to their ship. Time gets blurry there. I escaped somehow during a storm and swam to the nearest island. I can barely remember it. The sun came up and I found a cave to hid in and I stayed there. The poison took everything out of me. I was tired, weak, hungry, completely vulnerable."

Mamie pointed to Hiccup. "He didn't try to kill you?"

"He had a knife," Astrid said. "But he didn't try anything. Toothless, his Night Fury, liked me, and I think because of that Hiccup didn't feel as threatened. He trusted his dragon."

"Good boy," Mamie said.

"He helped me," Astrid continued, looking at Hiccup. "He cleaned the poison from the wound, even dressed it, and brought a boar right to the cave. I was still weak, and he took me back to his island to rest. The hunters attacked them, too, and I helped fight them off. Hiccup offered to fly me home and I let him."

"That's when the hunters found you," Mamie said, nodding her head.

"Not far from Glacier Island."

Mamie sighed. "Just a little bit further and you would have made it safely."

"And he wouldn't be lying here."

"Or the hunters could have shot him down on the return flight and we wouldn't have known."

Astrid's heart squeezed at the thought.

Mamie patted Astrid's arm. "Tell me honestly. No one else is listen. Have you slept with him?"

Astrid's face burned. "No! Why does everyone assume that?"

Mamie smiled widely, a twinkle in her brown eyes. "He's an attractive boy. You're an attractive girl. You've both gone above and beyond for each other. He's special to you, obviously. Anyone can see that from your actions."

Astrid's blush deepened.

Mamie leaned in closer. "I remember a young sailor, broad shouldered, not an ounce of fat on him. Lean and strong as an ox. In human terms, of course. He had the face of a god, square jaw and thick hair, like Thor in the flesh. I was about forty, a young vampire in that day, trying to fulfill my wanderlust."

"And you and he…" Astrid waved her hand to finish the sentence, insinuating sex.

"Of course we did," Mamie said with a short laugh. "We were both young and hormonally driven. It was every girl's fantasy. A sea-weather man with the body of a sexual fantasy."

"But…he was…didn't you…" Astrid swallowing, looking for the words that would embarrass her the least. "Didn't being a vampire…kind of…change things?"

Mamie nodded. "Yes, it did. I had more of a drive that I had before. But I held myself back from biting him during the throws. It's hard, but possible." Mamie smiled, a girlish grin on her face. "I take it those thoughts have crossed your mind before?"

Astrid flickered her gaze to Hiccup. She would be lying if she said those thoughts hadn't entered her mind at all, even as a daydream, a wonder, a what-if.

"I don't think I loved that sailor," Mamie said. "Looking back now it seemed like more of an infatuation. I sought him out on several occasions, and he sought me, never asking of my strange appearances. He figured it out one day and confronted me."

"Did try to kill you?"

Mamie laughed. "He told me that he'd thought about it. He didn't, though, because he knew I'd win in a fight. He didn't want to die that young."

"Is this the part where you tell me you turned him and he's been living here ever since?" Astrid asked, knowing several vampires who'd been sailors in their human days.

Mamie laughed. "No. We had one last fling and never saw each other again. He's been dead from old age a good while, I suspect."

Hiccup shifted in his oleander-induced sleep, dreams playing on the other side of his mind, pulling him away from the madness he felt, the pain his body endured. He wrenched him arm, jerking the restraints. He gasped, pain ebbed through his voice. His eyes opened, red-lined and wide, and in an instant focused on Astrid.


	10. New Blood

The first thing Hiccup saw was Astrid. She stood at the bedside, looking down at him. He tried to speak her name but no coherent words came out of his mouth.

"The cup," the brown-haired woman said.

Astrid reached around her and picked up the clay cup. She leaned forward and held the cup to Hiccup's lips. The same pungent, bittersweet aroma charmed his senses. He drank it all, and licked the last drop from the cup's rim.

The nausea faded. The pain subsided. The shaking world calmed.

Everything hurt. It felt like he'd fallen off of Toothless and smacked flat on the ground, shattering every bone in his body.

"Astrid," he managed to gasp.

"Hiccup," she said, leaned over him. Water lined her eyes. "I'm sorry."

It took a moment for him to grasp the heft in her words. Astrid's presence changed things. This strange place. The unknown people. The bittersweet drink they insisted he take. It all made sense.

Blood. He drank blood. He'd craved it from the first whiff. His body needed it, yearned for it, desperately needed it. This body of his, the one that no longer felt like his own, quaked in pain, had been exposed.

He remembered it. Astrid attacked him in a frenzy, fangs bared. He still felt the ghost of her fangs pressing against his neck, sinking into his skin.

He ran his tongue along his teeth. Two teeth elongated over the others, sticking out, and ended in points. Fangs.

"You…" he gasped, eyes on Astrid.

She covered her mouth. A tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm sorry."

Astrid collapsed onto the bed and grabbed onto the sheets, hugging herself onto his middle. Hiccup didn't know what he would have done had his hands been free. He wanted to shove her away for what she'd done. He wanted to comfort her, to stop her crying. The restraints held him from either course of action and he didn't find out which he would have chosen.

"You'll be alright," said the brown-haired woman to Hiccup. "You're still adjusting."

The other woman put her hands on Astrid's shoulders. She didn't pull her away. Astrid stood on her own.

"Astrid, fetch me a refill," she said, handing Astrid the empty cup.

Astrid nodded, and without looking back at Hiccup she left the room. He heard her footsteps on a stone floor, a door, and those steps continued on the other side. He listened until he heard them no longer.

The brown-haired woman, a vampire he realized, stood at the end of his bed.

Without looking at him, she said, "I remember having wild dreams when I turned. I still have them once in a while. They were so vivid and beautiful."

Hiccup kept his stare on the woman. He felt the pull of sleep again, urging him back into the void of dreams. Each time he tried to get closer to the mountains but they stayed where they were, as if they'd been painted on the sky.

He could still smell the blood on his lips.

A vampire. The word still sounded as strange as it had. He was one of them. He was a vampire.

How would his father react? How would the others react? They'd been so ready to throw Astrid to the stake and burn her for what she was. Would they feel the same about him? He was still himself, right? Astrid said the turning changes things. How much would be different?

How long had it been since he flew away from the Edge? Weeks, it felt like. The others would assume him dead, or be searching. Berk would know by now. His father would be in a state.

Hiccup sighed, ready to fall back into the void of thoughtlessness. He closed his eyes to better find it, or let it find him.

Toothless.

At once his eyes opened. He tried to sit up. The restraints held him down. He pulled against them; the leather whined and creaked.

"Calm down," the brown-haired vampire said. She came to the bedside and laid a hand on his chest.

"My dragon," he gasped.

"Toothless?"

Hiccup paused, and gazed at the woman, silently demanding an answer. "The hunters…they…"

"They don't have him anymore," she said. "He's here, the Night Fury."

"Let me see him."

"You're not ready," she said. "He is fine and being taken care of. Don't you worry about him. When you are well enough, you will see him. But not before I say you're ready. Understand?"

Hiccup leaned back into the bed.

What to do? Once again he was at the mercy of vampires.

X

"You're making remarkable progress," the brown-haired vampire, who introduced herself as Mamie, said to Hiccup.

He stood for the first time since he'd woken up in the vampire's care. His body still ached. He didn't complain. He needed to make sure Toothless was alright.

He heard footsteps in the corridor outside, not an unusual sound, but this time the steps stopped at the door. The door opened and he caught the whiff of her on the air before she saw her.

"You wanted to see me?" Astrid asked, walking inside. She'd changed clothes, instead of what she borrowed from Heather she wore a gray tunic and pants. She still wore Heather's boots.

"I think he's ready to leave the nest," Mamie said.

Astrid looked at Hiccup and caught his stare. She looked back to Mamie. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Mamie nodded. "Are you not happy about it?"

"No, no, I'm ecstatic," Astrid said quickly. "What do you need me do to?"

"I don't know, he's your charge." Mamie shrugged.

"Take me to Toothless," Hiccup demanded.

Astrid stared at him for a moment, unsure, and then nodded. "Okay."

Astrid stepped back into the corridor and Hiccup didn't want to know if he should follow, he did anyway.

He didn't remember anything between Viggo's arena and waking up here. They were north, he assumed, wherever Astrid called 'home.' The stone walls of the corridor rose up on either side, arching above. Crystals embedded in the stone let out a ghostly light.

"What are those?" he asked, pointing up at the ceiling.

"They call them sun stones," Astrid said. "I'm not sure what exactly they are. They give off light."

"Are we underground?" he asked. Everything about this strange place said so: the darkness, the chill air, the silence.

Astrid nodded. "This is where the vampires have lived for thousands of years. It's underneath the ice in the north."

"Underneath the ice?" Hiccup asked. He looked up at the ceiling and found it hard to think that a layer of ice sheltered them.

Astrid paused in the corridor. "Hiccup, I'm really sorry about all of this. I didn't mean…I didn't mean for this to happen."

She spoke with sincerity. He knew, somehow, that it hadn't been her fault. Viggo had pushed her until she wasn't herself, and let her loose on him.

"It doesn't matter," he said, not wanting to think about it anymore. "It's done. We can count the things that we could have done different, but it doesn't matter what we should have or could have done. We're here. Let's just…keep going."

"Okay," she nodded.

She led him down the corridor, down a flight of wide stairs, and along corridors lit with the strange crystals. They passed other vampires, none of which spoke, all of which stared.

"You're new," Astrid explained after a while. She glanced over her shoulder at him. "They don't know what to think about you yet. I don't know if they know what to think about me, yet. Vampires are used to life happening slowly."

"Does this mean I have to live here?" Hiccup asked.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "You don't have to do anything. You can, if you'd like. You can go out and come back at any time. This isn't a prison. It's a refuge. It's a place where we can go and not be afraid of waking up with someone trying to stab a wooden stake through the heart."

"Does that work?" Hiccup asked.

"What do you think?" Astrid turned around to look at him, walking backward. "Anyone that got stabbed with a wooden stake through the heart would die."

"How you feel about garlic?"

"It's alright. If you mean if it will kill me, no it won't. I'm not sure where that rumor came from."

"Anything about being a vampire I should know immediately?" Hiccup asked. "Instant deaths? Allergies?"

Astrid hesitated, slowing down to think. "Not that I can think of. I've told you about sunlight. You need to eat every night or you'll start to get woozy. Um…you don't have to worry about freezing to death anymore. Burning is another matter. We can't handle the heat."

"Which makes the Artic a perfect home," he said.

"That," Astrid said, "and that no one comes up here."

Astrid climbed down another staircase, this one smaller, and into a box of a room compared to the grand castle elsewhere. Astrid led him through a corridor and into a wide room that dropped out into a dark underground lake, framed by ice. Dozens of dragons, some Hiccup had never seen, lounged about the large space.

Toothless spotted Hiccup immediately and popped away from his new friends. He ran to Hiccup, tongue lulling, and ran around him. He nuzzled Hiccup's chest.

"Toothless," Hiccup said, worry for the dragon waning. "I'm so glad to see you, too, bud."

Toothless sniffed him, head to foot, circled him, and blew into his hair. He wore a quizzical expression, ears perked, eyes wide.

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded. "I know. It's different."

"He can smell it on you," Astrid said. "All dragons can."

"That's how he knew what you were before I did," Hiccup said.

Astrid nodded. "They're not afraid of us as people are. I don't know why."

Hiccup hugged Toothless again. His attention traveled over to the other dragons in the cavern, to a large dragon that blended so well with the darkness that Hiccup had missed it the first time. The large dragon, the size of a large boulder, had glaring red eyes and a nightmarish blue skin, underneath which thick red veins spread.

"What is that?" Hiccup asked.

"That would be Bloodletter," Astrid said. "He's been here longer than any of us. "According to legend, his bite made the first vampire. It's bogus because he doesn't have teeth or venom. He's a water dragon. He is also…"

"Don't tell me," Hiccup said, nausea returning.

"A renewable source of blood," she finished.

His stomach churned. "Is that what I drank?"

"Yes," she nodded. "You'd rather it be human?"

"No," Hiccup said. "It'd rather not have to drink it at all."

"As would I," she said. "But it is what it is. He gives freely and we don't complain. This way we don't have to keep humans in a closet somewhere. Some vampires, do."

"Keep people in closets?"

"As slaves," Astrid said. "We don't here."

Hiccup swallowed, the question burning. "Have you drank human blood?"

She blinked at him. "Once."

"Oh, right," Hiccup said. He reached a hand to his neck. He remembered.

"If it matters," Astrid said, hands twisting together, "yours tasted much better."

He shuddered. Toothless returned to where the other dragons lounged beside a fish bowl.

"He'll be safe down here," Astrid said.

"How did he get down here?"

"Through the castle," she said. "The same way that we did. There's a cave that goes through the water, but it's dark and cold and filled with water."

Hiccup watched Toothless for a long time. He ate several fish and returned to a spot on the smooth stone floor and lounged with the other dragons. None of them looked in distress. If the vampires were friends of dragons, they couldn't be all bad.

"They've got a room made up for you," Astrid said after a while. "It's not much, but you can fix it up however you like. It's down the hall from mine, so if you need anything, you know where to find me."

She started back toward the castle and Hiccup followed. The went back the way they'd come and Hiccup tried his best to memorize each turn.

"It's a maze," she said after several corridors. "I still get lost every now and then."

The came to a corridor lined with identical wooden doors. She stopped outside one and put her hand on the door. "This is my room." She led him down to the next door. "This is yours."

She turned the old handle and led him inside. A simple bed had been made up in wool blankets and a fur. A wooden shield hung on the wall with a symbol that looked vaguely familiar.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "We trade when we can, and we'll bring back all sorts of things from traveling. I guess they hoped it would feel more like home than a blank wall."

Hiccup walked the space of his room. "It's bigger than my old room."

He sat on the bed and ran his hand over the soft fur. He saw the small blue veins on the inside of his wrist. He pushed his finger down on one of them and felt the pulse underneath. Slow, but still there.

"Do I still have blood?"

"Of course," Astrid said. "It won't satisfy, but it's there. Vampire blood is different."

"Do…vampires drink from other vampires?" He asked it as an innocent question, but the blush on her face shocked him. "Is that a bad question?"

"No, no, it's just…I guess it's better to ask me that someone else," she said with a nervous chuckle.

"Why?"

"Well…it's just that…when vampires drink from other vampires," she paused, words stuttering. She inhaled to speak, but someone else walked into the room, the man that Hiccup had seen when he'd woken up.

"It's a show of affection," he said. "Like during sex. We bite."

Astrid's face burned. "Yes. Thank you, Eret."

Eret shrugged. "See? They should have put me in charge of him. I can answer the difficult questions."

Astrid glared.

Eret continued, "Humans kiss or hold hands, which vampires do as well, but we also bite. It's one of those intimate actions."

"How is biting each other intimate?" Hiccup asked.

"How is sticking your dick in something intimate?" Eret asked back. "Same principle. You like it, you stick something in it, whether it be fangs or a dick."

"Thank you, Eret," Astrid said louder. "I'll send him to you if we have any other difficult questions."

"Anytime," Eret said to Astrid, and winked at Hiccup before he left.

Astrid let out a sigh. "That was Eret."

"Is he your…?"

"No," Astrid said before Hiccup could finish. "Eret's a friend. He…helped me out when I was young. Looked out for me. He's like a brother, or a cousin. He's family."

"Am I family now?"

She nodded. "Like it or not. We're family."

X

Hiccup stood in a green plain, far from the ocean, and not any closer to the mountains. The ground beneath his feet rumbled and before the sky turned red, he woke with a burning in his stomach. It gnawed on the inside of his stomach. He tried to sit up in his bed but couldn't. He fell out of the blankets and onto the floor.

"Hiccup?" The door to his room opened. Astrid rushed inside, dressed in her pajamas, a simple tunic. Her bare legs knelt down beside him and she grabbed his shoulders, turning him over.

His entire body shook violently, contorting him hands and locking his knees.

"What's wrong?" Eret appeared, shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of pants.

"He's hungry," Astrid cried out to him.

Eret vanished.

"It'll be alright," Astrid said to Hiccup, pulling him onto her lap, hugging his head close to her.

He could smell her, a combination of odors that made her. Underneath, the blood pumped through her body. He could feel it under her skin. He could feel her pulse.

Eret reappeared in the doorway with a cup in his hand. He knelt down beside Astrid and handed it to her.

"Hiccup, drink," she said, and pressed the cup of warm blood against his lips.

He drank, without breathing, until the cup was empty. Astrid held it for him, tilting it when she needed to. Hiccup reached up to it with his shaking hands and held it, his hands closed over hers. She no longer felt cold.

The rampant hunger subsided. Eret stood and walked out of the room without a word. Astrid stayed, holding Hiccup against her. She pressed her chin against his temple and he made no move to push her away. The feeling returned to his limbs and he grabbed onto her, holding her as close as she held him.

After the episode passed, Astrid helped him to his feet.

"What the hell was that?" Hiccup demanded.

"You didn't eat enough at dinner," she said.

She wiped a stray drop of blood from the corner of his mouth. Hiccup watched her hand move away from him, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist. She gasped, more of surprise than pain. He held the drop of red with in his sight. He couldn't explain the desire he felt, the urge, for more. He brought Astrid's hand to his mouth and closed his mouth around the bloody finger. He licked it clean.

Astrid stood, wide-eyed, watching him.

He released his hand and she pulled it back to herself. He understood then, what Eret had said by 'affection.' He knew he had gone into unknown territory by licking her finger. He had pushed the bounds into something more intimate that he understood.

Hiccup stepped toward her, closer than he had been, close enough to feel her breath on his lips. He leaned in but did not kiss her. Instead he leaned into her neck, where her pulse beat just below his lips.

Astrid gasped and grabbed him by the shoulders. She pushed him away and took several steps away.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You're feeling the high of a late feeding," Astrid hand, hand on her neck. "You need rest."

"Astrid," he called, but she was already through his door.


	11. Family

Hiccup woke up to a knock on his door. At first the foreign sound stirred a panic, but the reality of the past few days settled in quick. He sat up in his new bed, wider than his other back on the Edge, or Berk. The crystals in the ceiling dimmed at night and glowered brighter during the day, or what he thought was night and day. The world of a vampire came the other way around. Right now it would be dusk. The rest of the world would be falling asleep.

"Good morning," Astrid said as she walked inside. She wore pants this time. She carried two cups, one in each hand. She walked it over to him and sat on the edge of his bed, then handed one to him.

Blood. Still warm.

"Thank you," he said. He held the blood in both hands, preparing himself to drink it, and closed his eyes as he tipped the cup to his lips. Like before, he drank every drop, and licked the corners of his mouth this time.

Astrid drank slower. Hiccup set his empty cup on the bedside table before she had finished half of hers.

"When can I leave and return to the Edge?" Hiccup asked.

"Not yet," Astrid said. She took a drink. "You're still too young to be around humans."

"Why not? They won't attack us."

Astrid pulled the cup from her lips mid-drink, leaving a splash of blood against her lip. "That's not the point. You know that feeling you have right now where you can feel the blood rushing through your own veins? Can you feel it in mine?"

Astrid held out her arm. He eyed the veins in her wrist. He could. He felt her pulse, banging like a gong.

"Human hearts beat much faster. You won't be able to control yourself. It's all you will be able to hear, to think about," Astrid said. The blood glistened on her lip. "You don't want to put them through that."

Hiccup leaned forward and grabbed Astrid by the back of her head. She began to protest; he licked the blood off of her lip. She gasped, a soft, blood-scented sound that pulled on his yearning. He closed his mouth over hers, plunged his tongue into her mouth, searching for the blood that she'd drank. Her mouth tasted of it, she smelled of it, and he needed it.

He met Astrid's tongue, a warm snake against his. She pressed her tongue into his, pushing it back into his mouth, but didn't end the fight there. They fought back and forth, between his lips and hers, grasping at each other, pausing only for breath. Her fingers ran along his jaw, pulling him closer, holding onto his chin. His hands ran along her back, underneath her tunic, and along the smooth, cool skin of her back.

He slid his hand around to her front, and fastened his fingers around her breast.

"Hiccup," Astrid gasped, breaking apart from him. Her hand raced to his and he let go, removing his hands from underneath her shirt.

"I-I'm sorry," Hiccup said, starting at his own hands, which at that moment felt unlike his own. He'd never been so forward. "I-I don't know what came over me. That's not…like me."

"That's what I mean," Astrid said, her voice smaller than it had been before. "You're not in complete control of yourself. The thirst, it does strange things."

"What did you go through?" Hiccup asked, eager to change the subject. He closed his hand. He could still feel the soft flesh of her breast; he'd touched it. His first kiss and he'd gone straight to second base.

Astrid reached for the half-drank cup she'd set on the bedside table. She took a long drink, finishing it off, and returned it to the table. "You're lucky you have people to help you. I didn't."

"What happened?"

She looked at him. "I guess it won't hurt to tell you now. You're family."

He shrugged.

"I ran away after…I was bitten. I didn't know what was happening. I spent the first night in a barn, screaming until I lost my voice. I couldn't control myself. I didn't know how to or why. I was terrified." She spoke softly, eyes on the ground by her feet. "It was a week later that Eret found me. He'd been looking for me."

"Why?"

Astrid blinked, "Oh, he just…"

"Are you alright?"

Astrid inhaled and looked down at her hands. "He was the one that turned me."

Hiccup nodded. "Better or worse than mine?"

Astrid picked at one of her nails. "It depends on how you look at it."

"That tone says 'worse.'"

"I was betrothed," she said, looking up at him. "My future husband and I had never met but I'd been sold as a bride before I could speak."

"That's awful," Hiccup said. It wasn't unheard of. Some tribes still participated, including Berk, occasionally. "Wait, was it Eret?"

"No," Astrid said with a quick laugh. "It might have made things easier. I met him only once, a week before the wedding. I told you before, I was thirteen when I turned. I was also thirteen when I was supposed to marry."

"That's young," Hiccup said.

She shrugged. "That's the way it was. At the time, my to-be husband was eighteen, only five years older. He was working for his father, a seaman, and he was manning his own crew. Eret was on that crew. He hadn't been a vampire very long, a few years. I cut myself and he lost control. Someone saw him bite me, and that was it for him. I remember people running through town chasing him, but not much else. By then I knew what he was and what he had done to me. I ran."

Hiccup reached for her arm. She jumped at his touch, but didn't push him away. She closed her hand over his.

She said, "I know what it's like to have everything you know ripped away, all the people I knew, the people I loved, my parents, friends, they're not dead but they might as well be. I'm dead to them."

"Have you gone back? Maybe they've missed you," he said.

Astrid bit her lip. "I have."

"Again, that tone does not indicate good things," he said. He gripped her arm.

"They knew what I'd become, called me a monster, among other things," Astrid said, eyes on the floor. "My own mother told me to leave. I'd disgraced the family, she said, and she would rather me have died. My father refused to talk to me."

"That's horrible," Hiccup said, inching closer to her. "My dad won't be happy about this whole thing, but I can't see him disowning me over it."

"I didn't think mine would either," she said, voice thin. "I knew that they would accept me as I was, regardless, because I was their daughter. I thought they would love be anyway."

Her voice had gone thinner with each word. She sucked in a sob and blinked.

"I-I sorry, I shouldn't bother you with this," she said, starting to get up.

Hiccup reacted faster than he could have before, and pulled her back onto the bed and into an embrace. Startled, she hugged him back.

"I'm sorry," he said to her shoulder.

"It's fine, Hiccup, there's nothing we can do about it now," she said. She leaned back. "But that's why we live here. When the world rejects us we can call each other family."

He held onto her arm. "Family."

She nodded. "I won't stop you from going home. I'll go with you. No matter what happens, you're still family to us. Remember that, Hiccup."

"I will," he said with a nod. "Although, I'm not sure how my dad would feel about me bringing my vampire sister home with me."

"Don't call me your sister," she said with a scrunched up face.

"You said we're family."

"Yes, but you kissed me. Thinking of you as a brother gives me the creeps."

"Right," he said, feeling that same feeling. "Just family. Kissing cousins."

Astrid laughed, a full-bodied laugh that filled him with warmth. He wanted to hear more of it, and somehow knew that he would.

Astrid stood up and held out her hand to him. "How about a tour of the castle?"

"That sounds great, Milady," he said, taking her hand.

X

The vampires' castle was larger than he originally imagined. Vast corridors branched out in numerous directions. Astrid had not been joking when she referred to it as a maze. Hiccup had never seen anything like the architecture. The curved edges and high ceilings felt as strange as anything else had recently, like another world, like he should not be able to speak the language of the people that inhabited the castle.

They had a room for everything they needed. The Blood Dragon in the basement kept them fed and they had no need for a kitchen of any sort, but they did require a place to store the blood and keep it fresh. The room they designated for that had several floors. They called it simply the Blood Room. Pools of blood were kept inside of a thick, gel-like substance. Several fireplaces kept the temperature in the room up and the blood liquid. The room had a bitter sweet odor, not unlike the blood it held.

Hiccup stared into one of the untouched pools of blood. Astrid's touch startled him. She pushed a cup of blood, still warm, into his hand.

"It eases the craving," she said, ushering him toward the door.

They had a library full of old books. Hiccup ran his hand down a row of them. some of them were very old.

"This is amazing," he said. "Fishlegs would love this place."

"Hiccup," she said, her face serious. "You can't tell them about this place."

"What? Why not?" He turned to her. "He won't do any harm."

"It's not that I think he would," she said. "But it's in the code. Our laws. We cannot tell a human about this place. One pair of loose lips would bring a horde of vampire hunters to our front door. No, Hiccup, this is our sanctuary. Promise me that you won't tell them a thing about it."

He stood for a moment inside of her pleading gaze. "That's why you wouldn't tell me where it was."

She nodded. "Because someone might say something in casual conversation, without intent, and the wrong person overhears or gets word of it. What if you told Fishlegs and then he let it slip to a trader and then hunters hear about it and go straight to the Edge to get the information out of him? They'd torture him for it."

"Okay," Hiccup said. "I get it. I won't tell anyone about this place, I promise."

"It's your sanctuary, too, Hiccup."

"I know," he said, nodding.

She took him by the hand and led him through the map room, a room which he nearly drooled at. Maps of islands, detailed to the trees, hung on walls and stashed in barrels.

"Is this the new blood?" asked a hoarse male voice.

Hiccup jumped, he hadn't seen anyone in the room. An older man, perhaps sixty, stood at a large wooden table. Several smaller maps lay around; some were pinned on standing boards. He held a quill in his hand. A bottle of ink sat beside him.

"Yes," Astrid said. She motioned between Hiccup and the older man. "This is Hiccup. Hiccup, this is Larkin."

"Did you make all of these?" Hiccup asked, pointing to the maps of places he'd never been. Some of them looked familiar and it took him a moment to realize from where: the Dragon Eye.

"Most of them," Larkin said with a nod of his head. "Some of the older ones, no."

"Wow," Hiccup said. "You must travel a lot."

"I have," Larkin said. He straightened up to admire the maps with a dreamy pride. "I wanted to see the world before I died. I'm six hundred years in and there is still more out there I haven't seen."

"Wow," Hiccup said again. "This are amazing."

Larkin chuckled. "Well, you've got plenty of time now to see the places for yourself."

Hiccup stopped by a map of an island that looked remarkably like Berk. "I could see a lot of the world in six hundred years."

"To the south, far south, there are jungles so thick that blades cannot penetrate them. There is a wingless dragon that lives in the river there, the largest snake I've ever seen, long as two ships, as wide as a full grown yak. Terrifying thing. I forget what the locals called it."

"How far south have you been?" Hiccup asked.

"I spent fifty years on the ocean, venturing farther and farther south. The world gets hotter a little at a time, until it feels as though you might burst into flames, and then it grows colder again, and then the world ends in ice."

"Ice?" Hiccup asked.

Larkin nodded. "I thought the edge of the world might be somewhere under the ice, like we are here, but I didn't want to find out. I saw none of my relatives there, only white bears and ice dragons."

"Have you seen any Night Furies?" Hiccup asked. He looked eagerly between Astrid and Larkin. Astrid admitted she had seen other Night Furies when they first met, but he'd not asked her anymore about it. Other things had pushed that fact from his mind.

"I have," Larkin said. "But it's been a good while. I saw a flock a good way from here, I'd say a hundred years ago, maybe more. They're not native to these waters. They came from the east, I think, but I could be wrong. I'm better with maps than history."

"Thank you, Larkin," Astrid said, grabbing Hiccup's arm.

"Any time," he said with a curt not of his head. "Don't be a stranger, Hiccup. We're family, now."

Outside of the map room, Hiccup leaned into Astrid. "Why is everyone telling me that we're family?"

"Because we are," she said. Before he could ask, she added, "And every single person in here knows what you're going through. We've all gone through it. They want you to know that you are welcome here, that you have a family here."

X

Windshear and Meatlug touched down first, followed by Barf and Belch and Hookfang. The riders landed as close to the Great Hall as they could, and dismounted and ran inside. Stoick sat down at a table, head in his hands. Gobber stood beside him looking unlike his usual self. Spitelout stood behind him with his arms crossed.

Trader Johann sat across from the three Vikings, hands folded in front of him, thumbs twiddling.

"There you are," Stoick boomed, throwing his hands out toward the others.

"What's happened?" Heather asked first. Since Hiccup's vanishing, she had taken up the leadership role. Fishlegs stood beside her.

"Come, all of you, sit," Stoick said. They did as they were told, and surrounded Johann on all sides.

"Alright, Trader Johann, tell us what happened," Gobber said calmly.

"I was in the western markets setting up a stall for the annual trading market," Trader Johann said with a sweep of his hands. "Not only can one trade for new and exotic things one may not otherwise have access to, but one can also hear a barrel's weight in gossip and news from all over.

"I have a friend who deals with a rather salty sort, the Dragon Hunters. It turns out that his son is one of them, loves it too, although I've never liked that boy. A bit off in the head," Johann laughed, and when no one else did, cleared his throat and continued. "We were eating dinner one night and he told us all the story of how his son was witness to a strange event. He had gone to the hunter's stronghold, the location of which he did not include, where Viggo had invited the all of the hunters."

"Come on," Snotlout whined.

Stoick shushed him. "Go on, Johann."

"Like I was saying, Viggo held an event at his stronghold. Now this part of the tale is supposed to be secret, this friend of mine said, because the hunters themselves were told to keep it to themselves, but Viggo had captured a vampire and planned to set it loose on a boy."

"What?" Heather said at once. She stood, scooting her wooden stool with such haste it clanked to the floor.

Fishlegs squealed. "She didn't kill him, Viggo caught them!"

"That doesn't mean he's not in trouble," Stoick said, halting the conversation. "What happened next?"

"He did as he said he would, according to the story told by the father of the hunter who witnessed," Johann said. "A vampire, frenzied from starvation, was set loose on a prisoner. But then, the arena was attacked by an army of the beasts!"

"Dragons?"

"No," Trader Johann shook his head. "Vampires. They raged into the arena, took the prisoner and the vampire with them and left."

"He's gone?" Heather asked.

Trader Johann shrugged.

"Did she bite him?" Heather asked.

"I don't recall that detail from his story," Trader Johann said. "He only said that the vampire was set loose on the prisoner."

"If she did," Fishlegs said in a squeal. "Then he's…"

"Nonsense," Stoick roared, bringing a silence to the Great Hall. "I'll have no talk of that, not of my son, not of anyone. Understood?"

The riders nodded.

"What do we do now?" Fishlegs asked. "If Hiccup isn't with the hunters anymore…"

"Where would the vampires have taken him?" Heather asked herself more than anymore.

"Home?" Tuffnut said with a shrug.

"Okay, that just leaves the question of where that is," Heather sighed.

"North," Fishlegs said. "That's what Astrid said."

"Astrid?" Stoick asked.

"She's the vampire that Hiccup flew home," Heather said.

Stoick and Gobber exchanged a glance, saying more than words could, and giving Heather a horrible feeling behind her knees.


	12. Stretch

Astrid led the way up a set of wide stone stairs and into an underground courtyard. Hiccup faltered over the stone step onto the dirt ground.

"Wow," he said.

On the three sides of ceiling, where the sky should have been, was ice. Deep blues and greens gathered in puddles and shadows. It had been carved out to mimic a room. The towering icy ceiling sparkled with the light-crystals.

The icy walls sparked a new thought. He promptly said, "I'm not cold."

"That's good," Astrid said, turning around.

Hiccup placed a hand on the back of his other hand. "I am cold, but it doesn't hurt."

Astrid smiled, a lovely sight. "We don't mind the cold. I can still feel it, but it doesn't bother me. You can feel the cold, right?"

Hiccup took a quick moment to assess the physical feelings he hadn't given much thought too. There'd been too many other things to think about. "Yeah. What would it mean if it couldn't?"

Astrid shrugged. "I don't know. No one's said 'no' yet."

Astrid motioned him further into the large chamber. A high-pitched squeal shattered the otherwise silent air, followed by a rapid flutter; Hiccup jumped and ducked, prepared for whatever fell.

Three white dragons, nearly the color of ice, smaller than Terrible Terrors, fluttered around each other overhead. They vanished into the icy ceiling.

"Ice Terrors," Astrid said. "They're in the same family as Terrible Terrors."

Hiccup opened his mouth to speak but Astrid interrupted.

"Don't ask any more about them because that's all I know."

Hiccup closed his mouth and looked up at where the little ice-colored Terrors had vanished. Albino Terrors. Fishlegs would love this place. So would Heather. She'd love the room of maps, almost as much as Hiccup would.

Astrid led him to the far side of the room where a series of targets had been set up, dummies in the shape of people, stacked barrels, and wooden shields and iron warriors – all of which looked like they had been through the worst of a war, beaten, ragged, and spotted with bloodless gashes.

The swish of a blade caught Hiccup off-guard. Astrid withdrew a double-sided axe from a weapon rack.

"I train in my spare time," Astrid said, she held the axe like a weathered Viking, easily, as if it were part of herself.

"For what?"

"Anything," Astrid said. She barely aimed and lobbed the axe into the bullseye of a barrel's painted target. "A siege. A hunt. Hand to hand. I want to be ready. I hate the feeling of being unprepared."

"I don't think there's much prep you can do for a siege," Hiccup said. "Panic isn't something you can really overcome, you know?"

"I know," she said. "But I can be ready to handle the stress. I want to be able to function as well under stress as out of it."

Astrid walked to the barrel and lifted the axe from its deep gash in the wood. Hiccup had watched strong, healthy male Vikings struggle with a blade sunk half as deep. He looked down at his own hands. They looked the same.

"What's wrong?" Astrid asked. She stood beside him, axe over her shoulder, hand on her hip.

"I-I feel the same," he said.

She blinked once and shook her head. "I don't understand. The same as before?"

"You're stronger than you used to be, right?" He almost thought her answer would be no, that she'd always been as freakishly strong.

She smiled and a warmth surged through his abdomen and flushed his cheeks. His arms felt suddenly weak.

"I see what you mean," she said. "I'm stronger than I was before I turned. I don't remember it well enough to remember just when I noticed. I've gotten used to it. Try to lift something you don't think you can. Go on."

Hiccup walked over to the weapon rack. It was lined with all manner of blades, mauls, mases, bludgeons, and even swords twice as long as they should have been. Hiccup braced himself and chose a large maul. Human-Hiccup would have never been able to lift such a thing. It would crush him instantly.

He folded his fingers around the wide grip and placed the other underneath the end for balance. He worked his muscles and lifted.

He gasped; the maul came off the rack without hesitation. He felt the heavy weight of it in his hands, in his arms, but it no longer pushed back.

"See?" Astrid asked, suddenly beside him.

"That's amazing," he said. He set it back down. "What my dad wouldn't give to see me do that."

Astrid's face fell.

"I have to go back, Astrid," he said.

"Hiccup, no, you don't understand," she said, putting her hand up between them, her eyes pleading. "They won't…understand."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do, it happens when you…turn. It's happened to everyone here. There isn't a person in here whose family didn't alienate them for what they were." Astrid's voice shrunk as she spoke, until her last few words came out in a whisper.

"You don't know my family," Hiccup defended. "You don't know my friends. They wouldn't just turn on me because I'm not…the same. They might not understand, but they won't disown me so easily. My father loves me, I'm sure of it, even if he doesn't say it."

Astrid didn't say anything after that, but her eyes watched him with a watery reluctance. She set her axe back onto an empty spot on the rack. She nodded. "Okay."

Hiccup inhaled. "Look, Astrid, I'm not saying that your family didn't love you enough. My dad is different, that's all."

Her smile returned, deflated and edging on pity. "I know, Hiccup. We all thought ours were, too."

Hiccup sighed. She wouldn't understand until she saw.

"Remember," she said, warning on her tongue. "Your father might not despise you, but that doesn't mean others won't. Neighbors. Estranged family who's been looking for a reason since you were born to rid the world of you. The village jerk. Those types of people thrive when someone turns out to be vampire."

Hiccup's first thought went to Mildew. He didn't live on Berk anymore. Problem solved. His second thought went to Spitelout. He wouldn't let the village rest if he knew Hiccup had done something to turn himself into a vampire. He would make sure everyone knew it and hated it.

Astrid nodded. "I know. It sucks when people turn out to be horrible. You want to think the best of people, but you can't."

Hiccup shrugged, refusing to show his disappointment. "Sometimes you just have to see past the bad and focus on the good."

Hiccup stepped into a dirt circle, portioned off by wooden beams. It looked like a fighting ring. A wooden board propped against the wall held a list of names followed by lines.

"It's a way to stay in shape," Astrid said. She rapped her knuckles on the board. "We fight each other sometimes. Not to the death or anything, but like a game. See? Here's my name. I've lagging because I haven't been here as long as the others. But I'll break the top score one of these days."

Hiccup eyed the board. Astrid trailed a good number of points behind others.

"So, uh," Hiccup asked, unsure of what to say. "What else do you do for fun around here?"

Astrid smiled, mischievous and daring. "Ever play hide and seek in a giant castle?"

Hiccup laughed, then he realized her seriousness. "I can't say that I have."

"I hid well enough once that it took them three days to find me," she said proudly.

"And you hid for three days straight?"

"I picked a comfortable spot. I snuck out to eat, but I came back."

Hiccup laughed. "That's determination."

"But, speaking of eating," Astrid said, a pause on her tongue. "I'm a bit hungry. You?"

He sighed, hand on his stomach. "Yeah, I could eat."

Astrid reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's weird. You're hungry but nothing sounds good. Food doesn't have the same allure. You know what you want but you don't want to admit it."

"It feels so wrong," he said.

"That…doesn't really go away."

Hiccup looked up at her with surprise and shock.

She shrugged. "It's still blood. The thought that I'm drinking blood isn't appealing, but once I smell it I don't think about that anymore. I know that it will satisfy me so I don't mind. You've just got to get used to it."

Astrid held her hand on his shoulder for another moment longer, then removed it. It hung in the air between them, her delicate, pale fingers suspended, and then she reached down for his hand. She led him out of the training room and back through the castle's long, confusing corridors and into a room adjoined to the Blood Room that served as a Mead Hall.

Dozens of other vampires sat around the room's scattered seating with goblets, cups, and mugs full of blood. The warm, tangy scent filled the air and made Hiccup's stomach grumble. They lined for their servings and sat down. Eret joined them.

Hiccup drank while dozens of vampires came to meet him and introduce themselves. Many only introduced themselves with first names. The vampire clan came in all ages, he noticed, from what looked like thirty to a man that looked eighty. Astrid had told him how slow vampires age, that he could potentially reach one thousand years of age.

"It's strange to think all these people were in this castle," Hiccup said. "I didn't see more than a few people on the tour."

Astrid nodded. "It's a big place."

"I heard," Eret said, fingering a chip in his metal goblet, "that this entire castle used to be on an island. They had it moved, stone by stone, thousands of years ago."

"Who had it moved?" Astrid asked.

"The first vampires," Eret answered like she should have known that.

"If anyone could move an entire castle, it would be vampires," Hiccup said.

Eret nodded. "Either that or it used to be on an island that sat here, then they buried it in the ice."

"And how would they have done that?" Astrid asked, smiling.

"I don't know," Eret said with a shrug of his beefy shoulders. "Dug underneath it and let it all fall in, I guess. Or maybe they had one of those ice-spitting dragons smother it."

"Ice-spitting dragons?" Hiccup asked.

"They're really rare these days," Eret said. "I've…uh, heard about them. They are these huge dragons, absolutely massive things, that live in the water. They spit ice instead of fire."

Hiccup held his tongue. He didn't yet know Eret well enough to tease the information out of him, but he had a strange feeling that Eret knew more about these rare dragons than he let on.

"So, Astrid, you decided when you're let your pet visit home?" Eret asked.

Astrid blushed. It took Hiccup a moment to realize that Eret referred to him as the pet, which then made his face blush a fierce red.

"What makes you think I want to go home?" Hiccup asked, leaning onto the table. He wouldn't let Eret intimidate him with embarrassment. He could be a tough guy, too.

Eret half-laughed and took a swig of his blood. "It's what we all wanted. It's what most of us do, I think. I can only speak for myself and Astrid out of personal experience, but the others agreed as well, trying to talk me out of it, and Astrid, too. Unfortunately, as well as a blood disorder, we also share a strong sense of stubbornness."

"I was thinking about leaving tomorrow morning," Astrid said.

"Morning?" Hiccup asked.

"By morning we mean moonrise," Eret explained. "By night we mean sunup. You'll get used to it."

Hiccup turned to Astrid. "Really?"

She nodded. "I won't be able to talk you out of it so might as well get it over with."

"Thank you," he said.

"Just so you know," Eret said again, swirling his finger around his cup, "we call this transitional period from human to vampire the Stretch."

"The Stretch?"

"Because it feels like you're stretching," Astrid answered. Her brows furled. "I actually don't understand it."

"You're trying to hold onto the human world but can't let go of this new world. You're being stretched between them as you grow more into one than the other," Eret said. He looked down into his cup. He pulled out his finger and sucked the blood from it.

"How long does Stretch last?"

"It varies," Astrid said.

"Mine lasted a while," Eret said. "I refused to accept that my life had changed. Astrid here, on the other hand, didn't take that long to adjust."

Astrid held onto her cup and didn't look at either of them. "I didn't have anything to go back to."

This wasn't the first time Astrid had mentioned her previous life's lacking. Betrothed at birth, sent to marry at thirteen, barely a young woman.

Hiccup gazed between his two new companions – he struggled to use the word friend. They both held their cups in their forlorn gaze as if remembering something they'd rather not share.

"How are we going to travel?" Hiccup asked, desperate for a subject change.

Astrid looked at him. "Fly, of course. Unless you'd rather leave Toothless here and take a boat."

"No," Hiccup said quickly. "But if neither one of us can fly in the daylight, then…"

"We'll camp during the day and sleep and find something to eat," Astrid said. She nudged him. "Don't worry. I'm excellent at roughing it."

"She can start a campfire like it's nobody's business," Eret said, tipping his cup to Astrid.

The two of them shared a glance, one that spoke more to each other than out loud. Hiccup felt a twinge in his stomach at the motion, this private moment between two friends, the nervous, sickening twinge of exclusion. He shouldn't; the two of them had been friends a long while before Hiccup crashed into the vampire world. They shared a reclusive life, one that Hiccup now shared, a secret that they couldn't reveal to anyone but each other. In a strange way the feeling felt like jealousy, a nasty bit of it that faded with quick reason that the feeling shouldn't exist.

Should it? Hiccup took his thoughts into his cup while Eret and Astrid regaled with camping talk.

He had kissed Astrid. He'd touched her in a way, with a hunger, that he'd never felt before. No one had invited such emotion in him before her. He didn't know if her looks played a part into that feeling. She was attractive in anyone's eyes. He had seen beautiful women, but none of them had made him feel as such. Heather, for instance, was a lovely girl, smart, fun, and sincere; yet Hiccup felt only brotherly affection for her. Astrid, on the other hand, had something beyond the simple affection of words. He felt a yearning deep down, somewhere he'd never known before, a fire so hot it melted his insides into a molten lava pit.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked. Her hand touched his upper arm. An energy passed through her skin, through his shirt, and into his skin that ignited the fire underneath, or the cold so intense it felt like fire. He couldn't tell.

He swallowed the gulp he'd held without realizing it. "Yeah?"

"We could leave this afternoon if you feel up to it," she said. "Although, I recommend that we see how the sun affects you. Some vampires deal with the sunlight better than others."

"Astrid here hates it," Eret said, pointing his finger. "Then take Elliot. He can sunbath like he's a human again. You'll be able to tell him apart the moment you see him. He'll the vampire the color of charcoal."

"Do we need to pack anything?" Hiccup asked.

"Nothing more than the usual provisions, you know, rope, a blanket, some fresh water. We've got plenty of that around here. The only thing we don't need is food. You can leave all that behind," Astrid said, finishing off the last gulp of her cup.

"What about…eating?" Hiccup asked.

"We'll do that where we camp," Astrid said. She motioned to her empty cup. Dried blood lined each stage of the blood's level, a red ring against the insides. The oldest rings flaked. "Blood doesn't stay fresh very long. It's impossible to take it with you."

"The good news is that everything living carries a supply with them," Eret said, smiling. He winked at Hiccup and emptied his cup into his open mouth.


	13. Into the Light

Astrid led Hiccup back down to the dragon's nest. Toothless bounced to his rider, mouth open and tongue lolling, and nuzzled Hiccup's chest.

"I missed you, too, Bud," Hiccup said. He wrapped his arms around Toothless. He glanced back at Astrid, who stood with her arms crossed. "Does he have to stay down here?"

"No." She shrugged. "Dragons have gone up into the castle before. Most of the dragons we have around here are cold water dragons. They prefer the ice and water. Toothless, on the other hand, doesn't. So, you two can cuddle at night if you want."

Hiccup laughed and scratched Toothless' chin. "Hey, a dragon's warmth can keep a person from freezing to death. Been there a few times."

"Now you don't have to worry about it," she said with a smile. "The freezing to death, part."

Toothless purred against Hiccup's chest. The other dragons, all a cold blue or icy color, lounged about. A few played in the icy waters, splashing onto the ground and calling to one another. Astrid stood back, eyes on Toothless, a scowl pulling at her lips.

"Ready?" Astrid said after a moment.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. He stroked Toothless' head.

Toothless walked beside Hiccup on the return trip through the castle. Astrid walked several steps ahead. They walked up, up, and up, past any point that Hiccup thought familiar. Finally, they came into a heavy stone door. Astrid pulled it open. On the other side was a long, dark corridor.

Hiccup held onto Toothless by habit; his eyes adjusted to the near darkness in a frighteningly short amount of time. The shadows remained, but he saw through them. The corridor stretched on in front of him. Walls arched on both sides, narrower than those below. Nothing decorated the walls.

"Why is it so dark in here?" he asked.

"We're getting close to the top," Astrid said.

Astrid started down the dark corridor. Her golden hair turned into shadow as she walked away, and Hiccup jogged to catch back up to her. Toothless stayed with him.

Astrid stopped at the end of the corridor, beside an old wooden door that had been better days. The iron hinges had rusted and squealed tremendously when Astrid pulled the door open. She walked through and Hiccup followed. Toothless came soon behind.

Hiccup stood at the bottom of something; the darkness surged upward with a stillness that shook his bones. Astrid didn't hesitate to marvel at the dark. She climbed onto a stone staircase that wound up the sides of the walls.

"A tower?" Hiccup asked.

"Kind of," Astrid said. "But come on. We're wasting time. We're going to need all the night we can get."

Hiccup started up the stairs. With each step, the darkness receded above him. As he climbed higher, the darkness appeared below, hiding the floor, taking a step as Hiccup took one. Astrid climbed steadily higher until she was nearly in the darkness and out of his view. Toothless climbed without hesitation, but he did not climb higher than Hiccup. He stayed with his rider.

They climbed a considerable number of stairs. Finally, as Hiccup thought they might reach Asgard, they reached the top. A wooden door, much like the one below, sank into the old stone. Astrid stood beside it, waiting.

Underneath the door, pale light came through, like the first light of dawn, gray-blue and weak, a preceding glow.

"Ready?" she asked, hand on the metal handle.

"I guess," Hiccup shrugged. Toothless nudged him in the back, a warm hum. "What do you say, Bud? Ready to face the world again?"

Toothless warbled.

Astrid pulled on the door, slowly easing it across the threshold. On the other side, ice grew on all sides, floor, walls, and ceiling, and tunneled forward in a cavern. At the end, he saw the pale light shine brighter. Daylight.

Hiccup followed Astrid into the tunnel. Toothless trotted out without worry.

"How do you feel?" Astrid asked. She held the door open.

"Fine," Hiccup said. He looked down at his hands. The pale light didn't hurt. It didn't make him feel like anything really, a little tired perhaps, like he could sleep. "What should I feel?"

Astrid shrugged. She left the door open and walked to him. "Sunlight does different things to different vampires. Like Eret, some can take it like a human while others can't."

"He said you couldn't," Hiccup said. He hadn't meant it like he said it and regretted the words as soon as they'd left his mouth. "I mean, it's just that…he and you are the only two I know at this point."

"I can't handle it like a human," she said. "It's not…bad. It's like having your energy drained, like the exhaustion you get after hard labor, but a lot faster. If I'm out for too long I start to feel sick, nauseous, a headache, nothing uncommon. It's worse when you first turn. As you get older those side effects are supposed to go away."

"Do they?"

"I don't know," Astrid said, eyes on the end of the ice tunnel where the light poured inside and reflected off the clear surface. "Not completely, I don't think. The oldest vampires still feel the effects."

"It sounds rough to go a thousand years without seeing another sunrise," Hiccup said.

"You can see a thousand years' worth if you want," Astrid said. She turned to him. "It's like humans watching the sunset. You can watch it, but then it's time for bed."

"So... what now?" he asked.

"Well, since you're not writhing on the ground in pain, we continue. If it gets to be too much for you, let me know, and we'll try again tomorrow, or wait a week and see how you're doing." Astrid walked back and closed the old wooden door. It looked out of place among the ice; the ice suddenly turned to stone.

Hiccup followed behind Astrid down the tunnel, toward the light. As they grew closer, the brighter it became, a golden gleam against the ice, the color of a watery sunset over the ocean. Hiccup felt the tired feeling, the exhaustion like Astrid said. The way Gobber told the stories about vampires, he'd half expected to burst into flames and flutter into a pile of ash on the ground.

Astrid came to a halt right before the unfiltered sunlight entered. The bright light drew a steady line on the white ground. Hiccup went to walk into the sunlight, but Astrid held her arm out to stop him.

"Before you dive in," Astrid warned, "touch it with your hand."

She showed him. She moved her hand slowly into the sunlight and wiggled her fingers at him. He mirrored her action and reached toward the light. His fingertips entered and a tingling sensation vibrated through his skin and down to his bones. He hesitated, but he refused to let it hold him back. He stuck the rest of his hand into the light. The same strange tingling sensation followed his fingertips up to his hand, into his palm.

"Are you alright?" Astrid said quickly, eyes on his, unblinking.

"Fine," Hiccup said too quickly.

Astrid reached for his hand and yanked it back into the shade. She held it against his chest, her cool fingers around him, dissipating the strange warmth. She pushed him back and stepped between him and the sunlight, meeting his gaze.

"No, I-I'm okay," he tried to say.

"Hiccup, it's perfectly fine to not feel okay right now," she said. "You went through a major ordeal. You need time to adjust."

"No, I'm fine." Hiccup stepped to the side and pulled his arm out of Astrid's grip. He stepped fully into the light.

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted, her voice shattering against the icy walls.

The tingling sensation enveloped his entire body, pressing needles into his skin, surging underneath and inward. He collapsed. His arms couldn't hold him. His legs failed. Astrid appeared over him; her body provided a gentle shade. She wrapped her arms around him and carried him back into the shade of the cave.

"You idiot!" she shouted, still holding him in her arms. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

Hiccup labored with each breath. The exhaustion set in. "I didn't."

Astrid growled, "Don't be an ass."

Hiccup rested right where he was. Astrid didn't attempt to push him off and he felt fine in her care. Her cool body denounced the warmth that tingled and needled. Her cool hand over his refreshed him.

"You have to fly," Astrid said after a long break. "What would happen if we crashed into the ocean because you're too stubborn?"

"I thought you were a strong swimmer?" Hiccup asked.

"Are you? Is Toothless? He's a dragon, not a vampire, Hiccup."

Toothless warbled outside of his vision.

He hadn't thought of that. He didn't show Astrid how to fly Toothless in case something happened. He assumed that Astrid wouldn't need to know because they would be departing from each other. Toothless liked water. He could swim, but not for long periods of time. He was not a water dragon.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup said, to both of them.

Astrid sighed. Her chest heaved behind Hiccup's head. "It's okay. Just listen to me about these things. I'd rather not get you killed. I kind of like you."

"I'm glad, or else the next thousand years would be really unpleasant."

She laughed into his hair.

"So what do we do now if I can't fly during the day?"

"We wait until nightfall. We'll land before sunrise." Astrid reached to his forehead and pushed hair away from his face.

Her touch sent a cold fire underneath his skin, sending the last of the tingling pinpricks away. He'd been touched by people before, many people, but no one had the effect she did, like magic, like something beyond understanding.

Hiccup waited in the cavern with Astrid as the sun slowly retreated into the ocean. The golden sunlight gradually faded into dark blue and purple. When the shadow line on the floor had gone completely, Astrid deemed it safe. Hiccup and Toothless stepped out into the cavern's mouth.

A frozen sheet of ice sprouted on the other side, reaching far out to the ocean. To the north, ice rose into a deathly mountain range. The sky met the ocean in the distance, dark blue melting into a sparkling navy. An icy wind blew off the mountains, fluttering through his shirt, and it was then he realized he didn't wear his leather flight suit. He put a hand to his chest, feeling the absence of the weight.

"Yes?" Astrid said.

He explained to her about the flight suit.

She sighed. "Do you want to go back and get it? We're in the prime travel hours right now. We seriously don't have time."

Hiccup looked back down the icy cavern. The end swam in blackness.

Astrid shifted. "Do you not think you'll come back here?"

Hiccup shuffled his feet and laid a hand against Toothless' saddle. "I don't know."

"You didn't," Astrid said. She turned and pointed a finger at him. "You were planning on leaving us?"

He sighed. "This isn't my place, Astrid. It's yours. It's Eret's. It's just not me. I don't belong here."

Astrid stiffened.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said. She walked back inside the cave.

"What?" Hiccup asked again, louder.

She turned around underneath the protection of the ice. "If you're not planning on coming back there's no reason for me to go with you."

He fumbled with whatever words he'd been readying. "No, what if something happens and I need you?"

"Like what?"

"What if I-I'm hungry?"

"Find a boar."

He sighed. Toothless nudged him, a knowing look in his eye that gave Hiccup the suspicion that he understood more than Hiccup thought he did. He looked back at Astrid, standing in the mouth of the ice cave. Her blue eyes tore through him, right through the middle.

"If you go," Hiccup started, "then I'll have to bring you back regardless."

She let that offer sink in. Her disappointed grimace faded. She stepped back out of the ice cave, less enthused than before. "Okay. But please, when I say something, listen to me."

"I will," Hiccup said. He climbed onto the saddle and she climbed up after, hugging her body around him. Toothless posed to take off and Hiccup leaned around and said, "But I can't make any promises."

Before Astrid could speak, Toothless shot into the air. His black wings stretched out into the night sky and they soared through the freezing air. Few clouds spotted the sky, leaving it wide open and clear. Millions upon millions of stars twinkled back at them, a glorious sight from any angle. He flew southwest per Astrid's directions, toward an island that she called Shelm's Peak.

The island appeared first as a dark spec on the horizon and grew larger. A pointed mountain jutted out of its center and rose to an icy cap. A frozen tundra surrounded the base, sparse of trees. Fog rose above still waters, partially frozen. As they began to descend toward the island, the east started to glow a faint rosy shade.

"It doesn't feel like it's been that long since sundown," Hiccup said.

"The night goes faster," Astrid said. "They say it doesn't, but I say it does. Aim for that clearing halfway up the mountain. There's a cave in there that'll do for tonight, or today."

Toothless listened and landed in the spot Astrid mentioned. Astrid led them toward a narrow cave entrance that opened into a series of chambers on the other side that looked like others had camped there.

"Vampire waystation," Astrid said, pointing to the age-old fire pit. A few boar bones scattered one corner and the skull of something much larger.

Hiccup walked back out into the clearing. Astrid followed. The sun hadn't peaked over the horizon, but its light streaked across the starry sky in light blues, purples, and pinks. They reached upward into the middle where the dark ink slowly retreated to the west.

"See?" Astrid said, nudging his arm. "Plenty of sunsets."

Hiccup watched the pinks and blues and purples fade into each other, lightening the sky, stealing away his energy just as Astrid had said. It pulled on him, like he'd done a day of hard labor back on the Edge, repairing a hut or rebuilding something the twins destroyed.

With those thoughts came the longing. Dragon's Edge was his home. Berk was home. His friends and family lived there and so should he. With the thoughts came memories of the Edge, the huts, the memories made there, the bonds strengthened.

Astrid's hand found his again, pulling him out of his memory, and into the world where the sky lightened with a dangerous yellow. The sun had risen above the horizon.

"Bed time," Astrid said, pulling him into the cavern.

The clearing still stood in the shade of the mountain, but it didn't matter. It bothered him. It exhausted him. It made him feel like he could lie down and sleep for a year. He used to wake up early, once in a while, back on the Edge, and take Toothless for an early morning flight. Toothless didn't seem that upset, he lay curled up inside the cavern.

Hiccup yawned. Astrid yawned back at him.

"This place has a great few of the lights in the sky," Astrid said. She reached into the saddle bags and pulled out the bedding they'd packed. In a few moments, she had the beds prepared, two of them, side by side. She knelt onto one of them. "They're bright, but they don't hurt. It's like they're not real light, just ghosts, or reflections."

Hiccup came over and sat down on the bed beside hers. She yawned a second time and leaned back onto the bed.

"Are you hungry?" Astrid asked.

"A little," he said. "But I'll be alright for a while."

"Are you sure?" she asked with her eyes closed. "I can always go find you something quick to eat."

"No," Hiccup said. He thought of her out there, in the sunlight, feeling sick, looking for something for him. It made him feel a different kind of ill. "I'll be alright."

She opened her eyes. "You know the longer you wait the worse it gets."

"I promise, Astrid, I'm alright. If I decide later that I'm not, I'll wake you up." He leaned back onto the bed. He looked over at her. Her eyes glittered in the shadows.

"Okay," she said.

Her eyes closed and her breathing even. Hiccup inhaled the frigid mountain air. Toothless lightly snored. Astrid curled onto her side. He didn't feel the stabbing hunger pains that he had before, a vicious yearning. He could eat but he'd rather not.


	14. Return to Dragon's Edge

Hiccup woke up from his mountain-hunting dream to the sound of a whimper. At first he thought it had come from himself, but he soon realized that it came from beside him. The daylight outside shone in through the narrow cave opening and around the bend, a bright, midday glow against the cavern wall.

Astrid fisted the blanket she slept under, face twisted, fine features contorted in pain and discomfort, a tortuous sight. She whimpered softly.

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked, leaning forward. He lifted an arm toward her. Her entire body jerked. His hand stiffened in mid-air. She made a pitiful sound, and he couldn't hear it again. He gripped her shoulder and moved her, saying, "Astrid?"

She tensed underneath his touch. Her eyes burst open and she flung herself into a sitting position, gasping for breath that didn't take long to find.

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked, reaching for her shoulder again.

"I-I'm sorry," she said quickly.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid sighed and reclined back onto the bedding. "Nothing's wrong. It's just a dream. Nothing unusual."

"You have those types of dreams a lot?" He leaned back onto his bed. Toothless closed the one eye he had opened. He seemed to be taking the day-night shift well.

"Not anymore," she said, hand over her eyes. "I used to have them almost every night, when I first turned. I still have them occasionally."

Hiccup blinked at the ceiling. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she mumbled into the blanket.

A moment passed and Hiccup thought she might have gone back to sleep. He turned toward her and her eyes opened and found his.

"Are you okay?" she asked, barely a whisper.

"Yeah," he said.

She blinked, eyes locked on his. "You know how to tell how hungry a vampire is?"

"How?"

"Their eyes."

Hiccup looked away from Astrid. He had not seen himself since he became a vampire, not that he made a task of regularly checking his reflection. "I remember your eyes when we first met. They were red."

"It's a halo," Astrid said. "Or it's what we call it. It's always there, but as time goes by it gets bigger."

"When you…when we were at Viggo's arena," Hiccup said, feeling his heart quicken at the thought, "your eyes were all red."

"I was starving," she said quietly. "But, the point is that I can see the red in your eyes, Hiccup."

"That bad?"

"It's not bad, but it will only get worse. You're hungry. It's fine." Astrid sat up and pushed the blanket down her legs and stood.

"No, Astrid, it's fine, I can wait," he tried to argue.

"Hiccup," Astrid said sternly, hand between them. "I will be fine in the sun. I know my limits and won't push myself beyond them. I'll be back before you know it with a midnight snack. Or, I guess noontime snack."

Astrid shimmed through the cave's bend and her shadow grew along the wall until she vanished. Hiccup sat up and drew his knees into his arms.

Being a vampire was more complicated than he thought. As a human, he just got cranky when hungry, not a mindless killing machine. The thought that he could become what Astrid had been, a vicious, terrifying…monster...it shook his resolve to go home. He would never forgive himself if he hurt someone. But he couldn't just let them wonder what happened to him. They needed to know his fate. They deserved to know, if they didn't already assume.

He needed to go home, for his own sake, too. What had Eret called this time of his life? The Stretch. It fit. He felt as though he were being pulled in two directions, stretching him too much. Eventually he would break in two.

Steps in the cave rattled him; the intoxicating aroma that followed brought him to his feet.

"Here you go," Astrid said, heaving an adolescent boar over her shoulders. She plopped the dead thing down in the mouth of the cave, just inside the sunlight's shady reaches. Two pinpricks bled on the thing's neck; a spec of blood spotted Astrid's upper lip. "Eat up."

Hiccup felt the new instincts take over. Nothing else mattered except the boar and the warm blood that still filled its veins. He leapt from his spot and grabbed onto the carcass. Still warm to the touch, but growing old. He sank his teeth into the neck below where Astrid had; he drank. The warm blood oozed into his mouth and drained down his throat, stating a burning desire for it, the hunger that craved it. He drained the thing bone dry.

"I told you," Astrid said. She knelt beside him. "Never lie about being hungry. It's not good for your health."

She still had a spot of blood on her upper lip. Without thinking, Hiccup lunged for it, locking his mouth around Astrid's. The impact knocked her back and they fell onto the floor. Her mouth tasted of blood, warm, metallic, and hardy. He couldn't get enough.

Astrid wormed her arms between them and pushed hard against his chest.

"Hiccup," she breathed when their mouths parted.

His senses came slowly back to him. He held himself up on his arms and knees, pinning Astrid beneath him.

"I-I didn't…" he started, but found no excuse.

"That's what I'm talking about when I say 'control' all the time," she said. "You will be hungry sometimes and you need to be able to control yourself before and after a meal."

Hiccup sat back on his rear. "I don't know what happened, I just…and you…I wasn't myself."

"I know," Astrid said. She reached for his arm and then took it back. She chuckled, "At least you got me as a mentor instead of Eret. That would have been awkward."

He laughed and got to his feet. He offered Astrid his hand. "Did you ever kiss the first person you saw after you ate?"

Astrid accepted his hand and Hiccup hauled her to her feet. She laughed, looking toward the beds, and took the first step that way. "I might have."

"Wait," Hiccup asked. "Are you and Mamie…?"

Astrid laughed, then her face grew annoyed. "No, it was Eret. But that is a long story that I'd rather not relive. So, back to bed with you."

"So it's a normal thing for a vampire to feel…like I do afterward?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid blushed. She sat in her bed and pulled the blanket over her legs. "I think the word you're looking for is 'horny'."

Hiccup's face felt like it might burst into flames. "Uh, no, that's not what I meant. I only meant that…you know…the 'kissing' thing might be…like one of those…"

Astrid laughed. She rolled onto her side. "It's the change. It throws your body into a state of panic sometimes. I think it's supposed to be worse for boys, though. Mamie said it's because human boys only think about sex and food anyway, so it only gets worse when they're a vampire. They even out after about sixty years, she said."

Hiccup stuttered. "I think about more than food and sex."

"Dragons?"

"Yes," Hiccup said. "And…exploring, and defeating the Dragon Hunters, and…other things."

"Troubling making that list?" Astrid rolled over and smiled at him. She rolled back over with a chuckle. "We both need to go back to sleep."

"Right," Hiccup said, a bit flustered. He climbed back into his makeshift bed beside Astrid. It didn't take long for the pull of sleep to find him again.

X

When Hiccup woke up again, the sunshine diminished to a warm golden glow, barely-there and tinted with twilight ink. Astrid slept soundly beside him, curled onto her side, breathing even and without a bad dream behind her eyes. He had half a thought of mentioning his dreams of running to a mountain to her, but it felt too strange to bring up, like a private thought.

Without waking Astrid, he climbed out of his bed and crept toward the cavern's entrance. Toothless stirred, yawned, and stood. He stretched his legs and followed Hiccup outside.

The twilight glow felt like exhaustion, but not like it had the night before. The sun had ducked low below the distance ocean. Only a sliver of it remained in this world; above him, twilight took over and dotted the dark sky with stars and purple streaks, edging toward the sun to push it out. Hiccup tested himself in the pale light first, and with no adverse reactions, stepped out into the mountainside clearing.

He could see the island this time and had time to admire it. The lush landscape thrived despite the frigid temperature. It stretched out in a treeless tundra and ended in a tall pine forest. Hardy, cold, and stiff. Not unlike Berk. The mountains rose in icy points, trying to touch the sky.

"I've always liked this place," Astrid said from behind him.

Hiccup jumped. She stood a few steps behind him. He hadn't heard her move.

"It's peaceful," she said, taking slow steps to where he stood. "It's like being home, almost, but without the people."

"It's nice," Hiccup said.

"At night, you can see the lights in the sky. They're brightest next season, but they are still pretty," she said, hands together over her stomach. She dropped her hands and turned toward him. "Hiccup, do you want to pack up camp together and then hunt or split?"

"What do you meant?"

"We can pack and then go hunting together, or you can stay here and pack up camp while I go hunt something to eat," she said. Toothless warbled. "Toothless will need something, too. There's a stream just inside the forest with plenty of cold water fish."

"I-I don't know how good I'd be at hunting," Hiccup said with a shrug. He'd never been good at it before, at all, and he doubted being a vampire would improve his abilities that much.

She nodded. "It's okay. I'll teach you how. But, for right now, time is wasting. Strike camp and Toothless and I will be back."

She started toward the edge of the clearing, to the narrow path that lead downward.

"Wait," Hiccup said. "How do I know you'll come back? You might take my dragon and leave me here."

"What could I possibly have to gain from doing that?" Astrid said with a smile. "First, I'd be minus one of the few friends I have, and two, I'd have an angry Night Fury to deal with."

Hiccup nodded, taking in her words. "We're friends?"

"Yes," she said, a smile on her lips. "Remember, we're family. I'll be back before you're finished. I promise."

Astrid bounced down the mountainside and Toothless jumped to glide down. Hiccup stepped to the edge to see who made it down faster. It was a tough call. Astrid slid without falling, as if gliding down the rocky face as easily as Toothless floated downward through the air. The two of them landed and then began a race toward the forest, with Astrid putting Toothless up for a challenge.

Damn. Could Hiccup move that fast now?

He'd find out the finer details of his new body later. Right now, he had a campsite to pack up. Of course, there wasn't much of a site to clean, just bedding.

Hiccup had the camp entirely packed and ready to be put back into the saddlebags by the time Astrid and Toothless returned. Astrid carried a boar, larger than the one before, and Toothless smelled of fish. Astrid plopped the boar down. The scent struck his nerves, drawing him closer. He stood and walked over to Astrid and her prey, and knelt beside her.

No bite mark. Astrid hadn't eaten yet.

Astrid barred her teeth and sank her fangs into the boar's neck. Hiccup watched for a moment, the blood gushing into her mouth, staining her lips, gliding down her throat. It struck something else inside of him, something primal that he had felt before in the presence of warm blood and Astrid. He bent his head beside hers, close to her mouth, and sank his own fangs into the creature.

They drank together, side by side. Hiccup wasn't aware of reaching for her, but as the blood ran out and the beast dried up, he discovered that their hands had at some point become intertwined. Astrid removed herself from the boar and looked at him, their hands. Fresh blood sparkled on her lips, on her teeth, and he felt the same on his.

He leaned in, she might have as well, but either way their lips met. Tongues went in search of leftovers in the other. When they broke apart, their humid breaths beat against each other.

"We should get going," Astrid whispered, not needing to speak any louder in their proximity. "Before we lose any more night."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah."

Astrid leaned away first and stood. She extended her hand to him, which he took, and helped him to his feet.

In a matter of a few short moments, the saddlebags were packed and they were back into the air. They left the island behind and headed south.

"So how did you lose your foot?" Astrid asked, leaning onto his shoulder. Her arms held onto his middle.

"Oh, well, it's a funny story," Hiccup said, glancing down at his metal prosthetic.

"We've got plenty of time," Astrid said. "If we fly fast we can make it to your Dragon's Edge."

"If I tell you that story will you tell me something about yourself?" Hiccup asked. Of course, she had already, reluctantly so. She'd told him a lot about being a vampire.

"Like what?" she asked, hesitation in her voice.

"I don't know," Hiccup shrugged.

"Tell me yours and I'll think about it."

Hiccup started the story three years ago, before dragons and Vikings lived together on Berk, when it was kill or be killed. Astrid listened without interrupting and held on tight. Toothless warbled as he entered the story as the wounded dragon in the forest. Hiccup pointed back to Toothless' tailpiece as he told her about his trial and error in making it.

"It took a lot longer than I thought it would," Hiccup said. "I've made several tweaks since my first design though, and it works so much smoother than it did."

Astrid's grip tightened as he told her about the dragon's nest, the great behemoth dragons inside, the Red Death, and his narrow escape of it the first time. He told her about the other riders, the one she had met briefly on Dragon's Edge, and how they had flown into battle together, defeating the Red Death and ending the fighting on Berk.

"Except for Heather," Hiccup added as an afterthought. "We didn't meet her until several months after that."

Hiccup dove headfirst into the skirmish with the Outcasts and Alvin. He highlighted Heather's role and downplayed Mildew, whom Hiccup had tried to put out of his mind. The wind picked up as he told her about the Berserkers and Dagur and how everyone seemed to want the magic secret of flying dragons.

"I don't see why it's hard to understand," Hiccup said, patting Toothless. "They're not mindless animals, they just need some trust and friendship. I mean, once I earned Toothless' trust…he's been loyal ever since."

Astrid hummed on his shoulder.

"What? Does that sound stupid?"

"No," she said. "The opposite. It's rare to hear someone speak with compassion like yours. It's admirable."

"Oh," Hiccup said, glad she could not see the blush on his cheeks. "Thank you."

"What happened next?" Astrid asked, like a little kid hearing a great tale for the first time. "Dagur and Alvin joined forces."

"Right," Hiccup nodded. He remembered that day when he and the twins discovered the joining of the Berserkers and Outcasts, a mutiny waiting to happen.

He continued the story as they fought Outcasts, Berserkers, and a rouge Screaming Death. Speaking about it made it feel like a lifetime ago, although he knew it had not been that long. He finished the story about the war with the Berserkers and added how dull things seemed afterward.

"I spent the next three years scouring the archipelago for new dragons, or new lands, or new…anything," Hiccup said. He sighed into the wind. It smelled like rain. "But then, Dagur broke out of Outcast jail, threw Trader Johann overboard, and that's when he came to us with the great news."

"Trader Johann?" Astrid asked, her voice a pitch higher.

"Yeah, you know him?"

Astrid hesitated, like she had revealed something secret. "Uh, yeah. He's hard to forget."

Hiccup laughed. "I agree with you on that one.

It took less time to bring Astrid up to speed on the Dragon's Edge, the Dragon Eye, and their problem with the Dragon Hunters which she shared. Hiccup detailed Heather's decision to join them, after much persuasion from Fishlegs, when a spec on the horizon appeared through the early-early morning glow.

"That's the Edge," Hiccup said, not entirely sure. It was too dark to tell for sure.

"If not, we're landing anyway," Astrid said. "I don't want to be out once the sun starts to break."

The dawn's glow brightened as the neared the island. The shaping of the cliffs, the dotting of huts along the eastern side – it was Dragon's Edge. Hiccup felt a bubble release in his chest.

"Who is that?" Astrid asked in his ear, hugging him tighter.

A spec flew toward them, gaining speed at a remarkable pace, a streak of silver.

"Windshear," Hiccup said.


	15. Welcome Back

               Astrid’s grip around his middle tightened as Heather and Windshear sped toward them. Astrid tried to shrink herself behind Hiccup, out of Heather’s immediate view. Windshear slid to a halt in the air, facing them sideways, blocking off their view of Dragon’s Edge.

               “Where in Thor’s name have you been?” Heather shouted at once, her voice edged with disbelief and joy, which her tired face reflected. “I thought you’d-”

               Her gaze fell to the blonde woman sitting behind him.

               Heather’s disbelief and joy twisted radically fast into anger. “I knew she would have something to do with it. You shouldn’t have gone alone!”

               “Heather,” Hiccup said, shouting over her, hand outstretched to her. “It’s fine. Everything is fine. It wasn’t Astrid’s fault.”

               “Yeah, I bet it wasn’t,” Heather said, her icy tone full of spite.

               Dawn glowed brighter.

               “We need to land,” Astrid whispered to his shoulder.

               “I know,” he said.

               “What did she say?” Heather spat, reaching for her double-sided axe. She pointed it at Astrid.

               “Nothing,” Hiccup said, irritability edging onto his tone. He checked himself and took a deep breath. “We’re fine, Heather. Please, we need to land.”

               Heather’s brow came together. She shook her head gently in questioning.

               “We’ve flown all night,” Hiccup said. It wasn’t a lie. “Toothless is tired.”

               Heather considered them for a moment and directed Windshear out of their path. Toothless headed toward the Edge with Windshear flanking him. The dawn came faster than it should have, as if it knew they flew on a timer, and instead of the stables he directed Toothless to his hut, his shadowed hut.

               Toothless landed just as the first rays of sunlight peeked over the eastern horizon. They landed like fire above his door, blocked by the sea stacks that opened into the bay. Windshear landed beside him. Heather did not dismount.

               Hiccup fumbled with his door; his hands shook. The sun came closer down from the door, the line of bright light sliding down, a guillotine. Astrid appeared beside him and together they unhooked the door and pushed it upward. Hiccup half-fell inside as the sunlight touched down through the doorway, leaving a vicious rectangle of yellow-gold on his floor. He watched it brighten from a shadowed patch beside it.

               “Hiccup?” Heather asked from outside. “Are you alright?”

               Astrid stepped inside after him, standing in the sunlight. It bleached her skin white, but made her no less lovely. Her hair turned to gold, haloed on her exhausted expression. It reflected in her eyes like the deepest ocean. Astrid came into the hut and stood beside Hiccup in the shadow, those ocean-deep eyes on him, waiting for his not-okay signal.

               “I’m alright,” he said to Astrid.

               Heather dismounted and walked into the hut, axe in hand. She stood within the bright light’s domain. Her green eyes settled on Hiccup, studied him, took him apart, contemplated disaster or distrust – he’d never liked that look on her, especially when aimed at him. But it was not her gaze that upset him the most.

               He could smell her. Heather. She smelled like blood, like flesh and sweat. Underneath that armor, blood pumped freely through her veins, warm, sticky. Each heartbeat, each pulse, resounded like a distance gong, a low beat of thunder.

               Astrid’s hand gripped his upper arm. Her worried gaze settled into his, a silent word on her lips, _don’t_.

               “What happened?” Heather asked, hand tightened around the handle of her axe, voice squeezed into a seething whisper.

               “It’s a long story,” Hiccup said. He focused on the wooden planks of his floor, their uneven lines, their bare grain.

               Heather took a step closer to him, baring her axe toward Astrid. Astrid’s hand tightened on his upper arm, her other flinched.

               Heather said lowly, “You were captured by Dragon Hunters, we know.”

               Her pulse beat quicker. He heard it, felt it.

               “Trader Johann said that he heard,” Heather hesitated. She faltered slightly. “He heard…Hiccup, tell me what happened after that.”

               He dared to look in Heather’s eyes. He saw the confusion, the desperation, the worry that must have plagued her and the rest of the riders since his departure. He saw the fear of the worst, what she assumed as the worst, and in some part of his mind he knew that she had already guessed, but refused to believe it until he told her himself.

               “He told us that Viggo’s base was attacked,” Heather said after a moment of silence. She twisted her hands on the axe’s shaft. “By vampires.”

               Hiccup grimaced at the word. Astrid made no motion.

               “It was,” Hiccup said.

               Heather winced. “Then…you were taken by them?”

               “I was,” Hiccup nodded.

               The sun streamed in brighter now. The sun rose from the ocean and warmed the Edge in daylight. Toothless warbled from his stone-bed, looking down from the loft of the hut and onto those standing below.

               Hiccup saw the red in Astrid’s eyes. They had eaten at the same time, which meant a similar, if not stronger, red gleamed in his eyes, too.

               “No,” Heather said, shaking her head. She held the axe to her chest and took several steps toward the open door, until she stood on the threshold. “You’re not…you can’t be…”

               “Heather,” Hiccup said, as calmly as he could without thinking about the hunger. “It’s fine. I promise. We’ll talk about this later, alright? Tonight, dusk. Until then, don’t tell the others. I want to tell them. If they heard it coming from me it won’t…freak them out as much, I hope.”

               Heather backed out of the hut entirely, into the bright sun.

               “Heather, promise me,” Hiccup said, pleading as much as he could.

               “Fine,” she said quickly. “I promise. But I expect a full explanation, from both of you, tonight.”

               “You’ll get one,” Hiccup nodded.

               Astrid nodded, too.

               Heather reached up with her axe and pulled the door down, slamming it between them. The sudden darkness wrapped him up and he heaved a great sigh to be rid of Heather’s pulse in his mind and of the brightness that threatened to rip him apart, until he remained a pile of dust.

               Despite his growing hunger, he climbed the familiar steps to his bedroom and collapsed into his bed. His head hit the pillow, the familiar plop, the same creaks of his hut, his home. Astrid’s yellow head appeared beside him. He started to move; she laid a hand on his chest.

               “I’ll find something to eat,” she said.

               “I can wait until tonight,” Hiccup said.

               “You might,” she said with a grim undertone, “but it’s not worth the risk to your friends. I’ll be right back, alright?”

               She stood and walked out of his sight.

 

X

 

               Hiccup woke up to a gentle hand on his shoulder, a firm grip. He opened his eyes gradually. Sleep tugged and pulled him downward. The smell tugged him awake, warm, bittersweetness. Blood.

               Astrid knelt by the bed with a cup in her hands. Hiccup sat up and took the cup from her hands and drank it quickly, feeding the roar in his stomach, the ache in his limbs. He drank it all. The empty bottom stared up at him, red-smeared.

               “Did you eat?” Hiccup asked. Had that been for the both of them?

               “Yes,” Astrid nodded. She sat on the edge of the bed. “I thought a cup might be less…distracting than dragging a boar or wild chicken across the island.”

               The sunlight oozed through the corners of his window. The meal worked its way through him, easing and calming.

               “Did anyone see you?”

               “I don’t think so,” she said. “They were all in the clubhouse, I think you called it. The big house over there.”

               “Yeah,” Hiccup said. “That’s the clubhouse.”

               Astrid scooted farther onto the bed and kicked off her boots. “I know it’s…strange to share a bed with someone, but...”

               Hiccup felt his heart flip-flop. He scooted over toward the wall. “It’s alright.”

               Astrid stretched out beside him. She turned onto her side, facing him. Hiccup twisted onto his side and reached his arm over Astrid to set the cup on the bedside table. The bottom of the cup hovered a few inches over the wooden surface and he couldn’t get any closer without touching Astrid. He bent further toward the table, leaning into her, his mouth to her temple. He let the cup fall the last inch to the table, where it clanked to a halt.

               “Do you think your friends will kill us in our sleep?” Astrid asked, her words’ hot breath hitting his neck.

               Hiccup adjusted the arm that held him up and bent back onto the bed, falling into his pillow. “I don’t know. Probably not.”

               “On a scale of one to ten, how sure about that are you?”

               “Nine,” he answered without thinking too much. “Maybe eight for Heather.”

               Hiccup stared upward at the ceiling. Astrid moved beside him, shifting her body underneath the blanket. Her knee grazed his thigh.

               “Astrid,” he asked, barely a whisper.

               “Hm?”

               “You said you went back home after…you turned,” he hesitated. She said nothing, but he felt her breath hitch. “Did they try to kill you? Your family, I mean, you said…what happened?”

               For a moment, she said nothing. “You really want to know?”

               “Unless it’s horrible,” he said. “But then I’ll still wonder.”

               “I went back home about a month after it happened,” she said. “Mamie went with me. Unlike you, everyone knew what had happened to me, or had guessed. Eret had exposed himself when he bit me. I went to my parents’ house and before they spoke, I saw the look on their faces, like…I was a ghost.”

               “But they were happy you were alive, right?”

               “They disowned me,” Astrid said.

               “Oh,” Hiccup coughed. “That’s a bit drastic.”

               “They sold me as a bride,” she said. “I was bitten before the wedding. When I ran off, my parents were forced to pay back the money they received for me. They didn’t have it and it ruined them. They worked as peasants in the field because of it, and blamed it on me. They cursed me out of their home. They said if they saw me again they’d kill me.”

               “But they didn’t,” Hiccup said.

               “I guess not,” Astrid said, a whisper.

               Hiccup turned to look at her. His heart fell into his spine.

               She squeezed her eyes shut. Water glistened between her lids. Her fists shook as she griped the blanket, warding off further tears. Her bottom lip rested between her teeth.

               “Astrid?” Hiccup turned on his side. He reached out a hand to her shoulder, but hesitated.

               She let out a gasp of a sob, holding most of it in. “I didn’t know what to do. I had no one. Everything that I’d known was gone, everyone I knew, everyone I thought loved me, friends…just gone. Everything.”

               Hiccup grasped her shoulder. She turned her head into the pillow and the first sob escaped her throat. Hiccup slid his hand from her shoulder, down her back, and hooked it around her. She sucked her breath in and held it. She turned her head from the pillow and looked up at Hiccup.

               “I’m sorry,” he said.

               “I know you don’t think yours will do the same,” she said, her voice raw. “And they might not. Maybe it just proves how awful mine was from the start.”

               “Don’t say that,” Hiccup said. He felt her heart beat against his hand, a slow drum.

               “They sold me,” Astrid said. She inhaled and shuttered a gasp. “Like livestock.”

               Her hands found the ties in front of Hiccup’s shirt. Her eyes focused on them, teased them through her fingers.

               “I suppose I got the better end of the deal,” she said with a half-hearted chuckle. Her eyes dimmed. “I just don’t want you to go through the same. I hated myself afterward, for years, thinking that I’d done something, or hadn’t done something. Like there were still amends to be made…And if you were treated the same I wanted to be there for you.”

               “Like Mamie was for you?”

               She bit her lip. “She wasn’t. I held it in until we got back home and shut myself up in my room for a month. She tried, I think, but I wouldn’t let her in. Eventually she stopped trying. Sometime after that Eret picked the lock on the door and let himself in. He kicked my ass back in gear.”

               Hiccup yawned and nestled back into the pillow. He left his arm around Astrid. He liked it here. He liked the feeling of having someone so close. He liked having Astrid so close.

               “Even if someone comes in, Toothless won’t let anything happen to me,” Hiccup said. His breath bounced off of her mouth and came back to him. She sniffed the air between them, smelling the same that he had: blood.

               “Goodnight,” she said.

               “Goodnight.” He watched her fall asleep, watched the gentle ease pass over her face and smooth the worry lines around her eyes. Only when her breaths came slow and even did he find sleep beside her.

 

X

 

               Astrid woke up before dusk. Pale, sunset reds and oranges gleamed into the room from between the sides of the window, enough to light the grain of the wood of the hut. She didn’t sleep well outside of her own bed, and this time was no different. She had, however, fallen asleep easily underneath Hiccup’s arm. He had rolled during the night, and taken his arm and embrace with him.

               Astrid let out a small sigh; the pale light glowed on his face and in his red-brown hair.

               A small sound came from behind her, a tiny sound. Her attention left Hiccup’s sleeping form and focused on what she should have realized immediately: someone was in the room. That someone was being quiet, alarmingly so.

               She tuned her senses. A human, by the smell. A heartbeat, calm and steady.

               Astrid rolled over as softly as she could without waking Hiccup.

               Heather sat on the floor. Her axe rested beside her. At the sight of Astrid, her hand reached for it, but did not pick it up. Their eyes met. Heather opened her mouth to speak, but Astrid held up her hand. Hiccup needed his sleep. Astrid slid her legs from underneath the blanket and set her socked feet on the floor. She reached for her boots, all under Heather’s gaze, and slipped her feet into them.

               Heather stood as Astrid stood, and pointed the tip of her axe toward the hut’s door. Astrid walked toward the door first and Heather followed a few steps behind, making a point to keep the axe between them. Astrid hesitated at the door. The sun rested low enough that the light wouldn’t blind her; there would be places of shade, surely.

               The two girls slipped outside without waking Hiccup. Once on the deck of the hut, Astrid raised a hand to cover her eyes from the glow. The sun rested on the other side of the island, leaving large spots of shade. She stepped toward one of them, behind Hiccup’s hut.

               “We’re going to talk,” Heather said, axe in hand. She used it to motion to Astrid. “My hut. Now.”

               “Which one is it?” Astrid asked.

               Heather pointed down a gangplank to a modest hut on the ground. Astrid took the lead again, leaving Heather behind her. If walking behind her made her feel safer, it didn’t matter to Astrid. If she attacked, Astrid could move faster than Heather could swing the axe. She’d been attacked enough times to know how fast a human could swing an axe.

               “It looks new,” Astrid said as she approached Heather’s hut.

               “It is,” Heather said. She sidestepped Astrid and opened the door. Only one window let in light, and a canvas cloth hung over it, dowsing it in darkness.

               Astrid stepped inside and heaved a sigh.

               “You don’t like the sun?” Heather said in a spiteful tone. 

               “It’s not my best friend,” Astrid said.

She shut the door, completing the darkness, and walked around Astrid. She stood at the window, hand on the cloth. She yanked it down, lessening the shadows. Sitting on the shelf underneath the window was some sort of contraption. It looked like shined stones welded together, but its purpose eluded Astrid. It looked somewhat prehistoric.

“You didn’t strike me as the abstract art kind of person,” Astrid said lightly. Heather didn’t even crack a smile.

“Fishlegs made this when Hiccup vanished,” Heather said. She directed the strange device toward Astrid.

Astrid understood. The sun caught the shined stoned and their angled directed that sunlight to a particular point, in this case that point was Astrid’s head. She did not move. She held her hand up to catch the worst of the concentrated sunlight.

Heather turned the thing away, but she kept her hand on it. “I want some answers and you’ll give them to me.”

“Okay,” she nodded.

Heather narrowed her gaze. “You’re awful compliant.”

“I didn’t come here to fight,” Astrid said, although if it came down to it, she’d kick Heather’s ass to prove that she could. “I came here with Hiccup.”

“You turned him,” Heather said, lifted her axe back into the air, aiming its deadly sharp point at Astrid.

               Astrid winced at the accusation. “Not on purpose.”

               Heather looked over the axe. “So it’s true? He’s one of you?”

               Astrid lowered gaze and nodded. “It was not my intention. Viggo…he caused it. He drove me into a frenzy, threw me into the arena with Hiccup…I-I didn’t want to…” She couldn’t find the words to excuse what she’d done. She’d maimed Hiccup for life. She brought her hands to her face and sank to the floor. “I didn’t mean to.”

               “Viggo cause it?” Heather asked.

               Astrid nodded. She dropped her hands. She refused to cry in front of Heather. She wouldn’t be overcome again.

               Heather lowered her axe, but held it firm. “You didn’t want to turn him? Not at all? Not even a tiny little bit?”

               Astrid opened her mouth to deny it, then closed it.

               “I knew it,” Heather spat.

               “I can’t say I didn’t think about it,” Astrid said quietly. “It’s not…a social life, being what I am. People don’t tend to take kindly to me walking into a tavern. It’s not easy to make new friends. Hiccup…is different. He felt like someone I could spent time with, not like the old vampires. They still treat me like a child. I just…thought it would be nice to have a friend again.”

               “You don’t have vampire friends?”

               “Not very many, and we scatter. We spend a lot of time alone,” Astrid admitted. “People think a thousand years of life is so great, but you never hear about the loneliness that comes with it. They don’t think about how many nights they’ll sleep alone, or how many meals they eat by themselves, or much they’ll miss people…how much they’ll want to go back, to talk, to listen, to…just be touched.”

               Astrid shuddered at the memories that wouldn’t fade, not entirely, no matter how much she tried to forget them. She pulled herself inward, as she always did, and wrapped her own arms around herself. She buried her face in her arms and fought hard against the sobs that until now, she hadn’t bothered to hide, because no one had been close enough to hear them.


	16. New Senses, Still Friends

 

               Heather didn’t say a word as Astrid fought herself. When Astrid took control of her internal tears, she looked up at the dark-headed girl. Heather stood with her axe over her shoulder and one hand on her waist. The sunlight outside faded.

               “I’m sorry,” Astrid said, feeling stupid for having to apologize. “I should have better control than that.”

               “Loneliness does that to you,” Heather said. “You think you’ve got control, you think you can handle whatever Thor throws at you, and sometimes you can.” She shifted on her feet and looked down at the floor. “I know what it’s like to be alone, and to think that I’m completely alone out there. I spent years surviving on my own after my village was destroyed. I can’t say it’s been as long as you’ve been out there, but long enough to understand what a bitch loneliness can be. Sometimes, when I was out there by myself, all I wanted was someone, anyone, to just _be_ there.”

               Astrid nodded. “So when I met someone like Hiccup, I can’t say I didn’t daydream about how it would be if he was there all the time.”

               “It’s nearly dusk,” Heather said, looking out of the window. She bit her lip. “He’ll be waking up soon, won’t he?”

               Astrid pushed herself to her feet and nodded. “He wants to explain it to everyone at the same time. He thought it would be better coming from him, and not me, because you won’t kill him on sight.”

               “I didn’t kill you on sight, either,” Heather said, shouldering her axe, clanking the metal against her armor.

               “If Hiccup hadn’t been there, would you still have acted the same?”

               Heather’s frown twitched. “No, probably not, but from what I know about vampires, you would’ve fought back. Would I have stood a chance?”

               Astrid felt the smallest of pins in her chest, one she hadn’t felt in a while, and a grin pull at her lips. “Not at all.”

               “Let’s head to the clubhouse,” Heather said, a small grin on her face.

               Astrid followed Heather out of her hut and back into the falling night on Dragon’s Edge. She led her back up the gangplank and to Hiccup’s hut. They stood a short way from the door when it opened. Hiccup ran onto the deck with Toothless bright behind. At once his eyes found Heather and Astrid; his gaze settled on Astrid and a sigh left his lips.

               “There you are,” Hiccup said, throwing his hands in the air at Astrid. “And…with Heather.”

               “We were talking,” Heather said.

               “And now we need to talk to your other friends,” Astrid nodded toward the clubhouse, where the other dragon riders were already gathering.

               Hiccup heaved a great breath and ran a hand through his bed-head hair. “Right. Can’t say I’m looking forward to this one.”

 

X

 

               Hiccup walked into the clubhouse first with Heather and Astrid behind him. Sure enough, the other riders stood around the hearth. Whatever conversation they’d been having ended abruptly. All four sets of eyes wandered first to him, and then over his shoulder at Astrid.

               Hiccup swallowed. He could smell each of them. They each had their own smell, a different odor that mixed with the beating blood. He pushed his eyes to the floor. This wasn’t going to be easy.

               A hand landed on his arm. Astrid’s. She looked into his eyes, asking silently, _are you okay?_

He nodded. He turned to address the other riders, who waited impatiently for his words. “So, uh, everyone. I’ve got a bit of news.”

               “Let me guess,” Snotlout interrupted. He waved one of his stocky hands in the air. “You’re a vampire now.”

               He’d said as a joke. When Hiccup didn’t dismiss it, Snotlout’s face fell.

               “What?” he said, looking at Hiccup with wide eyes, an attention that he’d never given before. He stumbled from his chair at the hearth.

               The twins looked close, squinting at him, while Fishlegs said nothing. He remained seated. He fidgeted. Heather must have told him beforehand.

               “He does look a little different,” Tuffnut said, hand on his chin.

               “Paler,” Ruffnut said.

               “And thinner?”

               “Definitely his diet.”

               “Most definitely.”

               “Guys,” Hiccup said, shushing the twins. Silence fell. He took a deep breath. As calm as he could, he explained what had happened from the time that he and Astrid left Dragon’s Edge. No one said a word. Heather stood by the door, arms crossed. They drank in every word.

               When the story came to Viggo’s arena, he kept it as simple as he could.

               “He, uh,” Hiccup stumbled. There wasn’t a nice way of saying it.

               “Astrid told me,” Heather said from the doorway. “She told me what happened.”

               Hiccup met her gaze. He sucked in his breath as Heather stepped into the clubhouse.

               “She told me how Viggo set a vampire on you,” she said. “One that he’d starved into a mad frenzy.”

               Hiccup caught Heather’s gaze and she gave him a simple nod. He understood her implication. Leave out Astrid’s name from that event.

               “Is it true?” Fishlegs asked.

               Hiccup nodded. “Viggo used that vampire as a lure for the others, I think. But I’d already been bitten when they showed up.”

               “They did all they could,” Astrid said at last. “Sometimes it doesn’t take. It did, in this instance.”

               “I hope they strung that vampire up,” Snotlout said. He pounded his fist on the table. “You know anyone on Berk would have. Especially my dad. You know about my Great Uncle Beardlout, right? He killed three vampires with his bare hands.”

               Hiccup heard Astrid make the slightest of sounds. She believed Snotlout as much as he did.

               “Does Viggo know?” Heather asked. She searched between Hiccup and Astrid. “Does he know what happened to Hiccup?”

               “With any luck he thinks I’m dead,” Hiccup said. He might leave them alone for a while.

               “He’s too smart,” Heather said. “We should operate under the assumption that Viggo knows you’ve been tuned.”

               Hiccup shrugged. “I agree.”

               Astrid took a step forward, leaving her place behind Hiccup to stand beside him.

“This Viggo,” she started, eyes on the floor. “You’ve dealt with him before?”

               Hiccup nodded. “He’s the leader of the Dragon Hunters. We’ve been having problems with them since we got to Dragon’s Edge. They’ve been capturing dragons and selling them. We’ve been stopping them. We’ve, uh, pissed Viggo off numerous times.”

               Astrid smiled at him, but it faltered. Her eyes flickered to the floor. “That’s good to hear. The pissing him off part, not the dragon hunting part.”

               “You know Viggo?” Heather asked, green eyes scrutinizing.

               Astrid swallowed. “In a sense. He’s not been friendly to us, either.”

               “I heard that he’d been running some kind of hunt to the north,” Heather said to Astrid. “But he never told anyone about it. He kept it a secret. I didn’t know he was hunting down vampires, too.”

               Astrid shrugged. “He’s not the first vampire hunter, but he’s certainly been the most determined.”

               “Heather spied on the Hunters’ side for a while,” Hiccup explained.

               “But Viggo found me out,” Heather said with a sigh.

               Hiccup heaved a sigh then turned toward Astrid. “Have you ever heard of the Dragon Eye?”

               “No,” Astrid said, a gentle shake in her head.

               “Probably not since we named it that,” Snotlout said.

               “Right,” Hiccup nodded. He proceeded to explain to Astrid the functions and shape of the device, how they had found it, what it did, and ended with how Viggo had been so eager to get his hands on it.

               Astrid didn’t say much for a short time.

               “The Dragon Eye,” Astrid repeated. Thoughts maneuvered behind her eyes, digesting the information he’d given her. After a moment, she shrugged. “Can’t say I have.”

               “We found your necklace in the cave,” Fishlegs said. He reached into one of his pockets and withdrew the silver medallion.

               Hiccup watched the necklace dangle from Fishlegs’ grip. He’d nearly forgotten all about it. However, now that the engraving had been refreshed, he searched through his memory of the vampire’s stronghold. He hadn’t seen that design anywhere in the underground castle. It must belong to Astrid’s home, the one from her human days, the one that shunned her.

               “Oh,” Astrid said, blinking at the necklace. “I thought I’d lost it.”

               Fishlegs stood up and held it out to her. Astrid took careful steps to him and held her hands underneath his. He dropped the necklace into her palms. She ran her thumb across the crest on one side.

               “Thank you,” she said.

               Fishlegs looked to the floor. A mild blush flushed his cheeks.

               Hiccup wanted to ask her about it, but not in front of the others. If it was from her home, then he wouldn’t ask her to talk about it where they could hear. That crest had appeared in the Dragon Eye, which nagged at his thoughts. If the Dragon Eye had been created by Viggo’s clan, how were his clan and Astrid’s clan connected?

               Astrid did not put the necklace on. Instead, she slipped it into a pocket.

               “So…what now?” Heather asked.

               “Right now,” Hiccup said, eyeing the rest of the riders. They looked to him as they had done before, waiting for his instruction, his word, his guidance. For a moment, it threw him. Had he expected them to dethrone him? He started again, “Right now, you all need to get some sleep.”

               “And leave you two alone so you can turn us all?” Snotlout asked.

               “Our hut is that one,” Tuffnut pointed toward the mass of Zippleback-gas balloons. “My bed is on the right.”

               Ruffnut jabbed her elbow into his stomach. “Do you really want to be a vampire?”

               “Why don’t I want to be a vampire?” Tuffnut argued.

               Ruffnut thought about it, then nodded. “Agreed. My bed is on the left.”

               Hiccup threw his hands between them and Astrid. “No one is turning anyone into anything. It’s just…a change we’ll have to get used to. Alright? I’ll see you all in the morning.”

               The twins filed out first, but not before whispering instructions to their hut to Astrid. Hiccup reached for her arm and pulled her back a step, away from the twins. He shook his head and tried to give her a reassuring smile.

               “Are they serious?” she asked.

               “Not likely,” Hiccup shrugged. “Although with them it’s hard to tell.”

               “They’re a few coconuts short,” Fishlegs said.

               Snotlout walked past, giving Astrid the evil eye. He turned and walked backward out of the clubhouse, pointing two fingers to his eyes and then at Astrid. “I’m watching you.”

               He tripped.

               Fishlegs lingered, as did Heather. Fishlegs asked, “How early in the morning do you stay up?”

               Astrid shrugged. “It depends. Why?”

               “I’d love to talk to you!” Fishlegs squealed. Heather bit back a smile. “I’ve never met a vampire before and there is so much to know about you. Your eating habits, your sleeping schedule, everything!”

               Astrid chuckled at his enthusiasm. “I’ll stay up until you wake up. We’ll talk then.”

               “Oh, that’s so great!” Fishlegs squealed again and made as if he were going to hug Astrid, but then hesitated. He dropped his smile and took on a serious expression, and cleared his throat. When he spoke, he forced his voice even and calm. “I look forward to it.”

               Fishlegs walked out of the clubhouse and Heather lingered a step after. She waved to both Hiccup and Astrid, then hesitated on the deck outside. She turned back to them. “What are you two going to do all night?”

               Hiccup shrugged and motioned toward his hut. “I thought about doing some work on Inferno.”

               “Inferno?” Astrid asked. She crossed her arms.

               He grinned. “I’ll show you.”

               Heather chuckled. “Hiccup here is quite the inventor.”

               Astrid looked between the two of them. Hiccup’s face had gone a bit red. She laughed. “Oaky, but first we need to eat.”

               Heather’s stare narrowed. “Eat what?”

               “Probably a boar,” Astrid said. “Or whatever else we can find on the island. Not people, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

               “What about dragons?” Heather asked.

               “Actually,” Astrid said to both Hiccup and Heather. “Dragons don’t turn. They’re immune or something.”

               “Really?” Hiccup asked. “Why not say that sooner?”

               “Because it’s not something that we really do,” Astrid said. “First, wild dragons are hard to catch. And if you bite them they get mad. With boars, the bite paralyzes them and they’re dead before we drain their blood. Dragon’s need a lot more than one vampire bite to paralyze them, and even if I could, that’s a lot of blood. I couldn’t eat all of that. It would go to waste.”

               “I didn’t know vampires to be so thoughtful,” Heather said, a teasing grin on her face.

               “We try,” Astrid shrugged. “I mean, emergencies happen. But rarely. I plan ahead.”

               “That’s nice to hear,” Heather said. She turned and headed down the deck to her hut. “Goodnight. Or good morning, whichever.”

               “See you,” Hiccup waved as she vanished.

               “She’s not bad when she’s not trying to kill you,” Astrid said.

               Hiccup laughed. “I take it you two had a meeting before I woke up?”

               Astrid nodded. “Come on, time for your first hunting lesson.”

               Astrid reached for his hand and pulled him out of the clubhouse. Hiccup laughed, but it lacked mirth. He wasn’t looking forward to this.

 

X

 

               Astrid led Hiccup away from Dragon’s Edge on foot.

               “Why can’t we fly? Toothless could spot a boar from the air,” Hiccup said, not liking how he left Toothless in the stables.

               “Because it’s not just about finding the food,” Astrid said. “You need to know how to do this in case Toothless or I am not around.”

               A wind jostled the trees above, whistling through the tall pines, filling the air around them with ghostly jitters. Astrid took a step closer to him and placed her hand against his chest.

               “I know you don’t want to,” she said quietly. “But you need to.”

               “I know,” he said, nodding. “Let’s just get this over with.”

               “Okay,” she said. “First lesson. Smell the air. What can you smell?”

               He sniffed quickly. “Air. Mud. Dirt. Me, I think. You.”

               “We’ll bath later tonight,” she said waving it away. “Take a deeper breath. Tell me what you can smell.”

               He did as she told. He inhaled and filled his chest with the island’s air. He repeated. Focusing on the air he breathed, he could smell a lot. The pines. The dirt. The salty sea air. Dragon roosts. Many smells he felt he knew but couldn’t put a name to.

               “Smell that?”

               “Which one?”

               “Focus in on the blood in the air,” she said, her voice a whisper. “It’s there. Everything with blood smells like it. Bittersweet, tangy, metallic…everyone’s blood smells a little different. It depends on diet and lifestyle. Creatures of the sea are saltier than those that don’t. Things that live underground taste a little like dirt.”

               “What do humans taste like?” Hiccup asked. This talk had unexpectedly made his mouth water.

               She gave no immediate answer. Hiccup turned to her. She eyed in him curious wonder.

               “You’re the only one I’ve…tasted.”

               “What do I taste like?”

               Her breath hitched.

               He didn’t relent his stare.

               “Good,” she said. She bit her lip. “Sweeter. But, Hiccup, it’s not worth the risk of turning someone.”

               “I know,” he said, although at that moment his thoughts didn’t connect with those words.

               Astrid grabbed onto his hands and held firm. “Hiccup, you’re just hungry. Focus. Can you smell blood on the air?”

               He inhaled again and held it, savored it. “Yes.”

               “In what direction?”

               He inhaled a few more times, and settled on the smell came from the east.

               “Good,” she said. “But Dragon’s Edge is to the east. That’s most likely your friends or their dragons. Focus on the smell more.”

               He did. “Something’s closer. West.”

               “Let’s go get after it,” she pulled him to the west.

               It didn’t take long to trace the smell to the source. It pumped his blood and thumped in his ears. Astrid’s grip on his arm held him steady. He knelt with her in the brush outside of a narrow clearing. Just inside the moonlight, a fat boar sniffed along the ground, seemingly unaware of their presence.

               Astrid squeezed his hand and leaned in close to him; her cool breath tickled his ear. “Bite the neck, just around the pulse. It’ll whine and squeal, but it’ll die quickly after that. Okay?”

               He nodded, eyes on the boar. He could _feel_ the pulse.

               He crawled out of the brush and rushed toward the boar before it knew it. He grabbed the thick beast and sank his hungry fangs into its neck. It let out a violent, high-pitched squeal. It’s short little legs kicked and tried to run, but he held it down. The jerks and twitches of its hooves slowed, and eventually stopped.

               “Good job,” Astrid said, standing behind him. “And on your first try. Go ahead and drink.”

               Hiccup didn’t need to be told twice. The warmth surged into his mouth and down his throat, sating that cursed sensation like nothing else could. Astrid bent down on the other side of the boar’s fat neck, her mouth close to his, and joined him. 


	17. Cavern Springs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Smut

 

               “Ah, here we are,” Astrid said, opening her arms to the dimly lit cavern that housed the mountain’s springs. Water bubbled up from the ground and met the water rushing from the mountain top, not too hot, not too cold.

               The humidity felt nice. Hiccup looked up at the crack where a waterfall ran through. No light glistened off the water’s surface, yet he could see it. He could see the pools of water, see the steam, see the edges where the rock had been smoothed by the water. He could see Astrid walking between the pools, slowly being engulfed by the shadows.

               “I didn’t know I’d be able to see so well in the dark,” he said.

               “Yeah,” Astrid said. “It’s one of those benefits. It’s nice because, you know, we’re nocturnal.”

               “Yeah,” he agreed.

He could see each stalagmite jabbing up from the ground, stray rocks on the cavern floor, and cracks in the stone under his feet. Shadows still cloaked everything, but his sight penetrated. He couldn’t see as he could in the daylight, not as far. His sight ended about twenty feet into the shadows. It was within the shadowed side of the cave, he realized, that Astrid had gone.

He said, “Where are you? I can’t see you anymore.”

               “Good,” she said with a high-pitched laugh, a strange awkward sound from the dark. “This way you can bathe over there and I can bathe over here, and you don’t get embarrassed.”

               His legs twitched and he darted his eyes to the floor. He cleared his throat and said, “W-why would I be embarrassed?”

               Astrid laughed, a nervous ring. “You mean you wouldn’t be if you saw me naked? I thought you’d not been with a woman before.”

               No sooner had she spoken than a piece of cloth plopped onto the stone floor.

               Hiccup’s face burned. Something clogged his throat and he fought against it, forcing his voice through, “No.”

               She laughed again, warmer this time. A boot thumped onto stone. Another followed. A bare foot tapped onto the floor.

               His heart hammered and threatened to stop; _that_ excitement traveled downward in a raging speed and twitched in the front of his pants. He quickly scanned the shadows. He spotted her and his heart skipped more than a few beats.

               Astrid stood on the edge of his vision, a pale ghost peeking from the shadows. Her pale skin stretched from her yellow hair to her toes, naked.

               “Can you see me?”

               “Barely,” he said. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Something lodged in his throat and expanded rapidly. He couldn’t breathe.

               “Are you okay?” Her voice went small. She shrank back into the shadows. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”

               His heart hitched again. He wanted to run to the place where she had been and bring her back; he didn’t. He stayed rooted to the floor as if his metal leg had become part of the stone.

               “It’s fine, it’s just…I’m not…we don’t…” Hiccup took a deep breath. Somewhere within the darkness, water splashed as Astrid stepped into one of the pool he couldn’t see.

               “You’re not a sailor,” Astrid said, something near humor and disbelief on her tone.

               “No,” Hiccup said. “I am not a sailor. What does that mean?”

               Astrid laughed, a warm hum on her lips, and said, “Mamie calls men that want sex all the time sailors. She used to live in a port town, before and a little after she turned. She’s told me a few stories of the sailors that would stop. The brothels along the waterfront were booming businesses, let’s leave it at that.”

               “And I’m not a sailor?” Hiccup asked.

               “You’re a gentleman,” Astrid said quietly. “Gentlemen help when they can, even strangers, even wild beasts that may slaughter them a moment later.”

               Hiccup’s face burned hotter. He placed a hand against his cheek. Hot to the touch.

He stripped down, tossing his clothes to the side, and bent down to remove his prosthetic. The warm water of the spring greeted his flesh like a blanket warmed by the hearth on a cold night. It wrapped his cold skin and hugged him tight.

               A gentleman.

               He leaned against the pool’s side and let those words sink in. He’d been called many things in his life, but he couldn’t remember a single time when someone called him a gentleman. Vikings weren’t gentlemen. Quite the opposite. Of course, Hiccup had already made a notion of ignoring tradition and going his own way. A Viking would have slit the vampire’s throat before asking her name, and wouldn’t have thought twice, or even once, about helping her eat, taking her home, or letting her sleep in his bed.

               “What’re you thinking about?” Astrid asked, her voice a chime in the silence.

               “You,” Hiccup said plainly.

               She chuckled, a small, delightful sound. “What about me?”

               Hiccup chuckled; where should he start? “Everything. All of it. All of this…it’s overwhelming to think about.”

               She said nothing for a small moment, and then added quietly, “I know.”

               Hiccup inhaled the moist air and held it in. He expelled it back into the air. “It’s happening so fast. I can’t imagine where I’ll be in ten years anymore. I assumed I’d be on Berk, chief or something, and everyone would be there. I’m having trouble imagining myself anywhere else.”

               “It’s part of your life,” Astrid said. “It’s hard to let it go. Especially if you have people that care about you, like your friends.”

               Hiccup sighed. Yeah, his friends.

               “Chief?” Astrid asked. “That’s a pretty high aspiration.”

               “My dad is chief,” Hiccup said. “It’s one of those unspoken traditions that I’d become the next chief unless someone killed me first and took over. That’s a common occurrence in Berk’s history.”

               Water moved around. “Really? I think you’d be a good chief.”

               “How is that? You’ve not known me that long, although I’m still flattered you think so,” Hiccup said. “A lot of people on Berk have doubts. They had a lot more doubts three years ago.”

               “You’re smart,” Astrid said. “You think before you act. You use words before violence. You don’t thirst for power or money. You looked out for people and creatures even when they aren’t your own. Like I said, you’re a gentleman. But you’re not a pushover, either, at least I don’t think so. You did let a vampire smooth talk you into taking her home.”

               Hiccup laughed. “If that is how you smooth talk, I’m not surprised you were there so long.”

               Astrid laughed. The heart-warm sound filled the chamber and Hiccup laughed along with her, adding his mirth to hers.

 

X

 

               Once clean, Hiccup and Astrid let themselves air dry in the darkness, apart from each other and separated by the shadows, just as naked as they had been. Hiccup told her more about the other riders and of Berk to pass the time in the least amount of awkward silence he could manage.

               “And Snotlout’s…well, he’s Snotlout. He’s basically harmless, minus what he causes to himself,” Hiccup said. He rested his hands on his stomach, moving them as he spoke. “His dad, Spitelout, is just as bad if not worse. He’s the thorn in my dad’s side that Snotlout is in mine. When I was younger and thought of as a hopeless cause, people thought Snotlout should be heir instead.”

               “Berk lucked out,” Astrid commented.

               Hiccup chuckled, glad she could not see his blush. “Yeah, I’m not sure how long Berk would have lasted.”

               He didn’t joke. His time in charge gave him a new perspective about being chief. Snotlout would be a horrible leader.

               “Your dad is the chief of Berk,” Astrid said. “What was that like growing up?”

               Hiccup sighed. “Not the greatest. Everyone expected more out of me than everyone else, and when I did worse than everyone else I became Hiccup the Screw-up. But, after we made peace with the dragons we started to get along better, and he started to listen to me, and we both kind of…grew up, I guess. He can be intimidating, and hard of hearing, and stubborn as a dead yak. But he is a great chief and a good father. The epitome of a Viking.”

               “Does that mean you don’t think you are?”

               “What?”

               “You said that you and your dad weren’t alike, and you said you father was the epitome of a Viking,” Astrid said.

               “Oh,” Hiccup said, silently cursing himself. He wasn’t used to people listening that closely to what he said. “I-I guess you could say that. I didn’t think that I’d be able to measure up to him, I guess. I still don’t. I mean…how do you even begin to compare to Stoick the Vast, respected and feared by the entire archipelago?” Hiccup let out a long sigh. “It feels like everyone just expects me to be a miniature version of my dad, and I’m not and they’re disappointed.”

               The cavern fell silent.

               “I’ve not met your father,” Astrid said, picking her words carefully. “But I have met you. If your father is anything like you, I think I’d like him.”

               Hiccup smiled, although she couldn’t see him. He turned his nearly dried head to the side to see. Astrid lay beyond his vision.

               “Thank you,” he said to the darkness.

               “For what? I call it like I see it.”

               “For listening,” he said.

               Dried, they dressed and left the humid cave for the chilly outdoors. Hiccup stumbled to a halt at the cavern’s mouth.

The sky above the mountain dazzled with moving lights in purples and blues. It danced in front of the starts, glistening and gleaming, a procession of ghosts in the sky.

“Look at that,” Hiccup said, mouth gapping. “I’ve never seen the fire so bright before.”

“It’s brightest at night,” Astrid said. “It gets brighter the farther north you go. At home, it’s so bright…I didn’t believe it the first time I saw it. It’s like the entire sky is dancing and turning colors. It’s amazing.”

In the pale light of the fire in the sky, Astrid appeared to glow.

Astrid caught his stare and smiled. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “What?”

“Nothing,” Hiccup said. He cleared his throat. “You…look nice, right now.

She looked down. Her smile faltered.

Hiccup blinked. “You don’t think so?”

She shrugged and shifted on her feet. “I try not to think about it. That’s why I was chosen as a child. They thought I was prettier than my sister. If I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have been sold as a bride, I wouldn’t have become a vampire, and I…don’t know where I’d be right now. Home, I guess, wherever that’d be, with a husband, children, a house…a normal life.”

He reached for her arm. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you here.”

“Even if it means you’re one of us?”

“Even then,” he said. His heart beat faster and faster. “It know it’s not an ideal situation, but I’m glad that we met. I-I haven’t…I haven’t felt this way before, toward anyone. I-I kind of like it.”   

“Like what?” Her blue eyes bore into him.

He chuckled, a nervous laugh that fell without humor, and he couldn’t control the twitching of his body. “Like I don’t need Toothless to fly.”

Her hand found his and held it. “Hiccup-”

“I know that it might be because we’ve spent a lot of time together,” Hiccup stammered, “but I don’t think that’s it. I’ve spent time with other girls, but no one has made me feel like this.”

“How many other girls have you spent time with since becoming a vampire?” Astrid said urgently, words pushing over each other to get them all out.

Whatever thought he’d had slammed into a halt. “What do you mean?”

“Your body is changing,” she said. She squeezed his hand. “It might just be...”

Could that be it? Could his sense of weightlessness be from his new body switching his insides up on him? Was he just hungry?

“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Astrid said, eyes on the ground, on the forest, anywhere but him. “But…the body changes. I remember craving yak butter, but each time I ate it I got sick. I got over it.”

Hiccup looked down at his hand on her arm. He let go. “Okay.”

“Come on,” Astrid said, waving him to follow her as she climbed down the mountain. “I want to show you more of what you can do.”

“Like what?” He’d rather sulk for a while.

“How fast could you run before?”

He wiggled his metal leg at her. “Like a blind chicken.”

She smiled. “I’ll race you to the water’s edge.”

He chuckled at her enthusiasm. Her smile returned and stretched from ear to ear, vibrant and alive.

“Okay, he said, and off they dashed down the mountain and into the woods at a frightening pace. He did not fall and did not collide with trees or rocks. The world felt to slow down. His feet were under his control. Beside him, dashing in and out of his view, Astrid laughed.

                

X

 

               Stoick tapped his fingers on his worn, wooden mug. Three mugs of mead and he still felt his thoughts rumbling around.

               He slammed the empty mug on the table. He’d brewed his thoughts long enough.

               Stoick walked through the sleeping village and straight to the Hofferson house just off the square. He knocked three times before the door opened. Finn stood in the doorway, blonde beard askew. Hildegard, his wife, paused halfway down the stairs with a shawl over her shoulders.

               “Chief?” Finn asked. “What is it?”

               Stoick grabbed Finn’s shoulder and pushed him aside, shutting the front door himself.

               “Is everything alright?” Hildegard asked, worry on her tone, sleep quickly leaving her eyes.

               “Finn,” Stoick said lowly. “I need to ask you about your brother.”

               “Harald?” Finn asked, distaste in the name, like a vile disease he’d tried to forget. He crossed his arms. “What’s he got to do with anything?”

               “What became of him after he left Berk?”

               Finn shrugged. “I don’t know. To Thor’s outhouse if I care.”

               Stoick huffed, mead obstructing his better judgement. “They had daughters. What were they names?”

               Finn sighed. “I don’t know, the poor girls. Their mother’s probably got them working in a brothel somewhere in Thor-knows-where. I should have kept them both here. At least they would have had a chance. That fool of a brother wrote to me a few years ago, needed another handout.”

               “Was one of them named Astrid?” Stoick asked. He was not in a mood to hear Finn degrade his little brother further.

               Finn studied Stoick’s face, thoughts debating. “It might have been. Why?”

               When Stoick said nothing after a time, Finn’s face fell into a frown.

               “Why?” he asked again. He looked toward his wife.

               Stoick hadn’t prepared for this part of the investigation. The village knew nothing of Hiccup’s disappearance, and nothing about the vampire that probably killed him. All Stoick had was a vague image of the girl, as relayed to him by Heather and Fishlegs, and a first name.

               “Nothing,” Stoick said, patting Finn on the shoulder. “Just a rumor I’d forgotten about until now. Something Trader Johann said weeks ago. I’ve, uh, had one too many, I think. Good night, Finn, Hildegard. Forgive my intrusion so late into your evening. Sleep well.”

               Stoick left before any more questions could be asked. He’d been so determined to find answers when he’d stomped down the hill to the village, and felt so foolish on the return trip home. Astrid wasn’t such an uncommon name. Finn was right. Whatever unfortunate children Harald had fathered, or not fathered by that woman, would have ended up in a brothel or pirates.

               He remembered Astrid. She’d been the first child born to Harald and his wife, five months after the wedding. She’d been a healthy, blue-eyed baby girl, and not a pound underweight, not like a ‘early’ baby should have been. Harald had never been the father sort, and that wife of his had been some woman from one of his excursions, no doubt found in some salty port. Even before Astrid could walk or her sister could hold her head up, Harald relocated his family back to whatever port that woman had been from.

               Stoick arrived at his front door and reached for the handle, but something blocked his hand.

               A tired Terrible Terror sat on his door handle with a letter tied around his limp leg.


	18. Sleeping Dragons

“What happens to the boars you leave lying around?” Hiccup asked. “Wouldn’t someone come across them and be suspicious?”

“Something will come along an eat the rest,” Astrid said. “Dragons and other wild animals can smell a fresh carcass.”

They lay on the ground beside a spring. The water cascaded down a rocky face, made smooth by time, that came down from the mountain. Hiccup closed his eyes and listened to the sounds he’d never heard before; dragons squawked, leaves rustled, the ocean sighed. A pack of dragons played somewhere.

Above, the lights in the sky dazzled, back and forth, frolicking among the stars. He glanced at Astrid. She’d said that his feelings were due to the changes his body was going through, but he didn’t think so. _She_ had everything to do with it.

The dragons squawked closer. Nadders, by the sounds.

A wild idea bloomed.

“Hey, Astrid,” he said.

“Hm?”

Hiccup sat up. “I want to show you something. Come here.”

Astrid followed Hiccup around the spring, toward the Nadders. She followed with a hesitant curiosity in her eyes.

“What is it? Do you have a secret hut on this side of the island?”

He smiled. He stepped out from the brush and into a little rocky clearing where six wild Nadders played. Astrid stepped out after him, and she looked toward the dragons. Hiccup stood to the side, grinning.

“Yes?” Astrid eyed him.

He asked, “Want to fly your own dragon?”

She blinked. “I, uh, Hiccup, maybe now’s not-”

Hiccup took another step into the clearing. The Nadders saw him and their game ended. They turned their horned heads in his direction, all sniffing and turning to get a better look at him.

“Hiccup?” Astrid called. She held her hands in front of her chest. She spread her feet, ready to run.

“Don’t worry,” Hiccup said to Astrid, who looked more intimidated of the dragons than the dragons did of her. “Nadders are friendly, just curious. They won’t hurt you. Trust me.”

Hiccup stepped toward the Nadders. None of them moved. One of the Nadders, a blue and yellow beauty, fidgeted her wings. She shifted her yellow eyes onto Astrid. Her nostrils flared. Hiccup approached the first one, palm exposed, and the wild Nadders considered him. It took a moment, but they warmed up. The closest one sniffed his hand, nuzzled it, and them chirped.

The blue and yellow Nadder drifted away from the group. She inched her way toward Astrid. She shifted her leathery wings and cocked her head to the side.

Astrid hadn’t moved, but she looked between the approaching dragon and Hiccup.

“Relax,” Hiccup said as another Nadder sniffed his hair. “She’s curious about you. Show her you’re a friend.”

Hiccup repeated his hand motion where Astrid could see him.

Astrid mimicked his motions, and stretched her palm toward the Nadder. She squawked, blinked, and lowered her head as she stepped toward Astrid. The Nadder sniffed her hand, her arm, and circled Astrid, sniffing. The Nadder stood with her tail curled around Astrid, and returned her horned snout to Astrid’s hand. She chirped, and nuzzled Astrid.

Astrid yelped, holding onto the horn to keep from falling back. Hiccup laughed.

“She likes you,” Hiccup said. He came closer. The other Nadders resumed their play. The yellow and blue one didn’t. She stayed with Astrid.

“It’s the…vampirism,” Astrid said. “Dragons can sense it.”

“I don’t think that’s all,” Hiccup said. “The other Nadders didn’t rush over to you. There’s more to it than that. Dragons can choose people, like me and Toothless. There is something about you that this Nadder likes.”

“What is it?” Astrid asked.

_The same thing that I like_ , Hiccup thought. He said, “I don’t know. Something the dragon just knows.”

Astrid laughed as the Nadder nuzzled her hair, sniffing her head.

“You want to learn how to fly?”

Astrid turned to Hiccup, face void of enthusiasm.

“What?” she said. “No, I mean, she doesn’t have a saddle.”

He smiled. He walked to the Nadder and made sure she saw him before he patted her flank. “She doesn’t need one.”

Hiccup hoisted himself onto the Nadder’s back and held his hand out for Astrid. She blinked, and the Nadder chirped. Astrid walked around to her flank and took Hiccup’s hand. He pulled her up and she sat in front of him.

He lifted his arms on either side of her, and reached for the Nadder’s crown of spikes. His chest pressed into Astrid’s back, and his heart fluttered. He took hold of a spike in each hand.

He said, “A Nadder’s crown makes for an excellent hold while flying.”

Astrid mimicked him, holding her hands on the same spikes as he, close to his hands.

The Nadder shot of the ground and into the dazzling night sky. Astrid tensed. Each flap of the Nadder’s wings pushed them farther upward. Hiccup closed his hands around Astrid’s and wiggled her grip.

“Don’t pull, she’ll think you want to go up,” he said in her ear. “Let her do they flying. Dragons are experts.”

Astrid loosened her grip.

“Hold her, but not too tight. It’s more of a security hold for you,” he said.

They soared above the thick trees on the southern side of Dragon’s Edge. Hiccup removed his hands from the Nadder’s spikes and folded his arms around Astrid’s middle.

Hiccup gave Astrid instructions as they flew. It felt good to be giving flying lessons again. It had been a while. It felt like the first days of Flight Club, when they were all trying to figure out what they were doing. Those days felt so long ago, and yet so close.

After a while, Astrid got the hang of it, and Hiccup fell silent. They flew laps around Dragon’s Edge, from the forest, to the quiet huts, to the beaches, and around again. Underneath the waving lights, the endless ocean, and nearly deserted island, it felt like they were the only two people in the entire world.

He wiggled his arms tighter around her middle, and flattened his hands against her sides, hugging her closer to his chest. He could smell her. She smelled unlike anything else in the world, not just blood, but something warm and delicious, like spring and rain showers, like the hearth on a cold night. He couldn’t get enough of it.

The lights in the sky faded, and the faintest of glows began in the east. It started as a lighter shade of midnight blue, then purple, then pinkish gold.

Astrid sighed, and steered the Nadder toward the ground, not far from Dragon’s Edge. Upon landing, Hiccup hesitated to dismount. He still hugged Astrid, and he didn’t want to let go so soon. He did, though, and slid to the ground first. Astrid followed.

The Nadder turned to face them, and nudged Astrid.

“What will she do now?” Astrid stroked the dragon’s snout. She chirped.

“Well, since I think the first date went well, she’ll be back,” Hiccup said.

Astrid smiled. “You date your dragons?”

He laughed and patted the Nadder’s flank. “Sort of, I guess. It’s a committed relationship.”

He felt it; a slight twinge of hunger twisted his stomach. For a moment, all he saw was blood, as thought he’d been plunged into a basin of it.

“Hiccup?” Astrid’s brown crinkled.

“I’m fine,” he said. The strange red-light departed. The world turned its rightful colors.

“We’ll eat before bed,” she said. “And before your friends wake up.”

Hiccup sent the Nadder back to its flock, which she protested. He promised to find her again. As if the dragon understood, she vanished into the woods with a weary glance toward Astrid.

They started the hunt together for time’s sake. The sun wouldn’t wait for them. They needed to hurry. Hiccup saw the boar first, but Astrid made the first move. Before the poor beast knew it, she pinned it, and paralyzed it with a single bite. The primal urge bubbled in Hiccup’s stomach. The sight of Astrid, blood on her lips, teeth ready to strike, sent a hot shiver along his spine.

Astrid sank her teeth in to drink, and Hiccup joined her, sinking his teeth into the thing’s skin close to hers. He drank; the urge from the hunger subsided, the other did not.

When the boar ran dry, Hiccup reached for Astrid. He pulled her to him, and pressed his bloodied mouth against hers. She tasted warm and bittersweet, metallic, and like her, that strange taste that he couldn’t identify.

The first rays of dawn sliced through the topmost trees. Astrid didn’t immediately pull away from him, but when they parted lips, she slipped her finger between them as to halt another kiss. Hiccup’s lips pressed into her finger, so close to hers, and for a short moment he thought she might remove it, but she leaned away.

“The high, I know,” he said. He blushed, and looked to the ground.

She bit into her lip, then stopped. “Yeah. You might look back on this in ten years and laugh.”

 “Maybe.” He doubted it.

 

X

 

When Hiccup and Astrid returned to Dragon’s Edge, the yellow and blue Deadly Nadder napped on the gangplank outside Hiccup’s hut.

“How did she find your hut?” Astrid asked.

“Nadders have remarkably tracking,” Hiccup said. “I’ve considered putting them into the Tracker class instead of Sharp, but I’m not sure how re-classifying dragons goes.”

“Tracker class?” Astrid asked.

“Dragon classes,” Hiccup said. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you all about dragons.”

The Nadder woke, fluttered to Astrid, chirped, and nuzzled her. Astrid held onto the dragon’s horn.

“I told you she liked you,” Hiccup said.

Astrid stroked the dragon’s chin. “Did she really come all this way for me?”

“Yeah,” Hiccup said.

Astrid’s facial expression twitched slightly in to a frown. She recovered, and pressed her lips together.

“What’s wrong?” Hiccup asked.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “I just…I’m not used to this kind of attention.”

“I thought you said dragons didn’t hate vampires like people did?”

“That doesn’t mean they like us any better,” Astrid said. The Nadder nuzzled her, and Astrid held onto the horn. The Nadder chirped, and lifted Astrid several feet into the air. Astrid let out a soft laugh, and the Nadder returned her to the ground. Astrid held the dragon’s jaw.

“She likes you,” Hiccup repeated.

“Most dragons tend to ignore us like we’re not there,” Astrid said. Her smile faded. Sadness edged her words. “If people acted the same, I guess things would be easier.”

Hiccup bit the inside of his lip. “Well, this dragon seems to really like you.”

Astrid glanced at him, and then back at the dragon. “Do you think she would like me like Toothless likes you?”

“I’m sure she already does,” Hiccup said. “But gaining a dragon’s trust goes beyond just flying. It’s a bond between rider and dragon, a friendship. Toothless and I can understand each other without words sometimes, not all the time. With time, you and she can do the same.”

“I’d like that,” Astrid said, barely a whisper. “A companion.”

Hiccup smiled. Astrid’s lips curled upward in a slight smile still twanged with sadness. She stroked the dragon’s chin, which the dragon enjoyed. She chirped and closed her eyes.

He’d not put much thought into it, but Astrid had hinted at a loneliness before. He’d not seen that many people on his tour through the castle. The number of vampires in the Mead Hall for the meal surprised him; to think, all of those vampires had been in the castle. It had felt so empty.

Berk and the Edge teemed with life. Would he be expected to live a life of exile for what he was? He could stay at the castle, but he couldn’t stay there forever. There was too much world to see. If he ventured to the end of the world, how would he get there? Toothless? By ship? Would anyone go with him, knowing what he was?

“Hiccup?”

He blinked; Astrid looked at him.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I’m just thinking. This whole being a vampire thing…it seems like there’s a lot of…time alone. You know?”

Astrid’s frown returned. “You’re right. I’ve spent most of my time by myself.” She glanced down at the Nadder’s snout. Her voice softened. “I admit, it’s been nice having someone to talk to.”

“I bet,” Hiccup said. “I mean, I can think of a whole list of things I could get done if I had some time to myself, but, I can also imagine how lonely it could get.”

Astrid glanced at him. She tried to smile, but it lacked mirth. “I thought I could handle it. I remember telling Mamie that I’d rather not see another person as long as I lived. It lasted a while, but I can only talk to myself for so long before I need real answers.”

She chuckled, but her smiled vanished.

“I, uh,” Hiccup started, but a lump in his throat choked his words. He cleared his throat and swallowed. “I’m glad that you were here to help me through. I-I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.”

She turned to him with a soft expression, her sadness lessening, her hard exterior thinning. His face burned under her gaze. Bubbles fizzed in his stomach. Her lips curved upward.

“Me, too,” she said.

She smiled at him; he smiled back. The bubbles turned into heat. It spread through in his entire body.

If he didn’t know better, he would say that pink tinted her pale cheeks.

“Oh! There you are!” Fishlegs came running up the gangplank with a leather-bound book in his hands. He stopped, gasped for breath, and then squealed. He held the book in his hands, which shook a bit. “I woke up at dawn. I couldn’t sleep! Not because I thought you’d attack or anything, I was looking forward to talking with you.”

Astrid smiled at Fishlegs. “Okay. But let’s head into the shade first.”

The clubhouse’s wide door proved too wide to shut out the sunlight effectively, and so the three of them sat in Hiccup’s hut. Astrid sat on Hiccup’s bed. Fishlegs sat at Hiccup’s desk, book open and pencil ready, while Hiccup tweaked his metal leg. If he wanted to run faster, he needed a leg with a more secure setting. Gronkle Iron should do the trick.

Fishlegs started with basic questions, like sleeping habits, eating habits, and hunting. Each bit of information, most of which Hiccup already knew, sent Fishlegs into a series of high-pitched squeals and fits of excitement, like he poked and prodded a new dragon species.

“And you can’t handle the sunlight?” Fishlegs asked.

“I can,” Astrid said, glancing toward Hiccup, “but it’s not pleasant. It’s too warm. It makes me sick.”

“And it does the same for you, too, Hiccup?” Fishlegs spun around to look at him.

“Uh, yeah,” he said.

“He’s young, so it affects him more than me,” Astrid said. “He’ll get used to it, though. It’ll take time.”

“You age?”

“Slowly, but yes. For every ten years a human lives, a vampire will live a hundred.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“When did you turn?"

“I was thirteen.”

“So…if you were thirteen…nine years…that would make you almost a hundred?”

“No, I’m just twenty,” Astrid said. “I could live to be seven hundred.”

“Where did you come from before you were a vampire?” Fishlegs asked brightly.

Hiccup looked up. Astrid blinked at Fishlegs, lips parted. She glanced at Hiccup. The soft muscles in her face twitched. She looked down at her hands.

“I don’t remember,” she said. “We moved a lot. I don’t think I had a home.”

“That’s awful,” Fishlegs said, while writing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He unfolded it. It was a drawing of the metal emblem they’d found in the cavern. “This was engraved onto your necklace. What does it mean?”

Astrid eyed the drawing. Unless she had the necklace on her person, Hiccup hadn’t seen it. She hadn’t packed it in their bags. The necklace, Hiccup assumed, belonged to her home tribe, the same that had shunned her for being a vampire. She had given Hiccup scant details regarding that side of her life; she wouldn’t freely give them to Fishlegs.

“I-I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve just always had it.”

Hiccup hadn’t known Astrid that long, but he could spot her lies. Fishlegs, it seemed, couldn’t.

“That’s okay,” Fishlegs said. “I saw the same crest in the Dragon Eye, and I thought, I don’t know, maybe there was something to it. It’s alright if you don’t know.”

“I wish I could be of more help,” she said. She fidgeted with her nails.

Astrid forced a yawn.

“Oh, I should let you get to sleep. We’ve made some great progress today,” Fishlegs said. He gathered his book and pencil and hugged it to his large chest. “Thanks, Astrid. So…I will see you two tonight?”

“Most likely,” Astrid said.

Fishlegs left, and shut Hiccup’s hut’s door. Just like that, Hiccup and Astrid were alone again.

Astrid sighed, stretched her neck, and scooted back onto the bed. “He seems nice.”

“He is,” Hiccup said. He reattached his foot and stood. He walked over to the bed and sat in the spot Astrid had occupied. It felt warm underneath his legs. He pulled his legs onto the bed.

Despite having slept in the same bed before, they climbed underneath the blanket with all the twitching awkwardness as if they’d never touched each other. The sun rose on the other side of the hut, glowing underneath the door and around the sides. Hiccup rolled onto his back. Astrid faced away from him.

“Astrid?”

“Yeah?”

“What does the necklace mean?”

She didn’t say anything for a moment. She sighed. “Do you really want to know?”

“Not if you don’t want to tell me,” he said.

“It’s nothing special. It’s just a crest,” she said. She inhaled, held it, and released it. “I don’t know why I keep it. It’s the only thing I have left of my home.”

“It’s the crest of your village?”

“No,” she said, barely a whisper. “It was a wedding gift from my future husband.”

Hiccup didn’t speak. He understood. It was not her village crest. It was the crest of the village she would marry into, that she was sold to.

“I know it’s not an exciting secret,” she said.

“That’s alright,” Hiccup said. “I’d rather it be something simple than complicating.”

She chuckled, jostling the bed. “You don’t think it’s complicating?”

“I mean, it’s not some hidden key to a secret vault or something, guarded by an eight-headed dragon that can smell fear,” Hiccup said, speaking with his hands. “That was passed down through generations and it was given to your ancestors from Thor.”

She laughed. She turned onto her other side, facing him. “How do you know that’s not partially true?”

“Please tell the treasure part is true.”

She smiled. “No. My betrothed husband’s family said they were descended from Thor.”

“Were they?”

“I doubt it,” she said. “Thor would have given much better lineage. But, who knows. Maybe Thor has plenty of illegitimate children out there. Maybe that’s what makes you special.”

“You think I’m part god?”

"It would explain some things.”

“Such as?”

She grinned.

“Such as?” he repeated, turning onto his side to face her.

“You have really nice eyes,” she whispered. “They’re bright. Intelligent. Humble. They’re…different from anyone else’s.”

He fell into her eyes. “I could say the same about yours.”

They lay close enough to feel each other’s breaths. Astrid moved first. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against Hiccup’s, a sweet kiss.

“Do you think it’s just the change?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d really like to think it’s not.”

Astrid moved her whole body closer. She pressed her hand against Hiccup’s shoulder and pushed him onto his back. He scooted into the bed. Astrid settled her head against his chest. Her body rested against his, each slow breath pushing her a little closer.

 

X

 

“Thor Almighty!”

Hiccup jumped; Astrid fell from his chest. Early evening light flooded in through the open door to his hut, but a massive figure blocked much of it. It took a moment for Hiccup’s eyes to adjust and for his mind to process the image before him.

His father stood in his doorway, flanked by Gobber and Heather, and looked like he’d seen a ghost.


	19. A Visit

Hiccup tumbled from the bed. "Dad?"

"What happened to you, Son?" Stoick asked. He took a step toward the bed, then stopped. His gaze fell onto Astrid. All worry turned into deadly dislike. "Who's this? It's her, isn't it? The monster that…did this to you."

Stoick reached for his blade; Astrid flinched, and pushed herself onto her knees. The blanket fell to the floor in a soft swoosh.

"Dad, no, wait!"

Hiccup threw himself between his father and Astrid, but Stoick pushed him to the side. Stoick swung his sword at Astrid, who easily moved out of the way. The blade sank into the wood. Stoick thrust upward and pulled it free, flinging splinters. Astrid readied herself. Stoick raised the blade, let out a roar, and dashed toward Astrid.

Hiccup threw himself in front of Astrid, keeping his back to his father, and latched his arms around Astrid's shoulders. Stoick grunted; the blade swished, and cracked into a supporting pillar. The impact shook the entire hut.

"Get out of the way!" Stoick bellowed. "She deserves the fate of her kind!"

"Why?" Hiccup shouted back. He lifted his head. Astrid looked paler than normal. The corners of her mouth turned downward. Hiccup set his hands on her shoulders. They shook. Inhaling, he turned around to face his father.

"They are monsters, Son," Stoick said. "Demons! Abominations!"

"Then so am I," Hiccup said. He stared his father in the eye despite the nerves that shook his knees that wanted to fall to the floor and huddle until the event ended. No; cowardice was not an option. Hiccup held his ground.

Deathly silence filled the hut. Stoick shook his head at Hiccup. Gobber stood by the door, ashen-faced. Heather stared on, arms crossed, frowning. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Hiccup balled his fists. He said to his father, "If you strike her down, you'll have to kill me, too."

Stoick pulled his sword from the wooden pillar. His fiery eyes that hadn't made Hiccup quiver since they'd made peace with the dragons sent a feverish chill down his spine; for a moment, he feared his own father would strike him down.

"So, it's true, then," Stoick said. He shook his head, but didn't lower his sword. "My own son, a monster. A vampire?"

Astrid's hand touched his back, a soft touch, a reassurance.

"Yes," Hiccup said.

Stoick's sword arm trembled.

"If you're going to kill me, do it now," Hiccup said.

"Is she the one that did it?" Stoick asked, accusations livid. His knuckles tightened on the sword. "She bit you?"

Hiccup hesitated. Behind him, Astrid trembled, even so slightly he wouldn't have noticed had he not touched her. In front of him, his father held his sword at a killing angle, ready to defend and protect.

Hiccup swallowed, and lied, "No. Viggo had another vampire locked in a cage. He'd starved her into a frenzy."

Stoick's gaze narrowed. "What happened to that beast?"

"Dead," Astrid said quickly. Stoick's eyes darted over Hiccup's shoulder. She made the smallest of sounds, like a sharp inhale. "It's the council's wish to not see unlawful turning. She was half-dead and mad. A mercy killing."

"Your lot has justice?" Stoick chuckled humorously.

"Please, Dad," Hiccup said, hands exposed and empty. "I'll explain, but not right now. Later. Tonight. It's not as bad as it seems. I promise. Just, listen to me."

Stoick considered this for a long moment, a moment in which his sword still hovered between them, angled to kill; if swung, Hiccup wouldn't see the sun set. Hiccup dared not move. He feared his father would kill Astrid if he had the chance.

"Fine." Stoick lowered his blade, but did not sheath it. "I will give you the chance, Hiccup."

"Thank you," Hiccup said. "I will meet you in the clubhouse at dusk."

Stoick huffed, and stomped out of the hut. Gobber hesitated, shocked and fearful, and shook his head at Hiccup as he followed Stoick outside. Heather lingered behind.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't think he'd react so…harshly."

"You told him?" Hiccup asked.

Heather nodded. "Not specifically, I just said you'd come back. We were worried. We all thought you were dead. I thought that your father would want to know you were alive. I knew he'd be more relieved than we were when we saw you."

Hiccup sighed.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

"No, it's fine, Heather. I understand. I would have done the same thing. Thank you for letting him know," Hiccup said. He suppressed a yawn. "I'll see you later. Try to keep him out of trouble, okay?"

"Okay," Heather nodded. She closed the hut door.

"Shit," Hiccup groaned, face in his hands. He slumped onto the edge of the bed.

"Your father?" Astrid asked. She stood where she'd been. She eyed the door. She took a graceful step toward the fresh wound in the hut's pillar. She placed a pale finger on the edge, and picked at a splinter. "He's…intimidating."

"He would have killed you," Hiccup said.

"He would have tried," Astrid said. She set her hands on her hips. "I'm too fast for humans."

"I wouldn't have let him," Hiccup said.

"You didn't." Astrid sat down beside him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. Her voice softened. "It will be hard. It's a change. But…I'm here. Okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Hiccup wrapped his arms around Astrid and pulled her back into the bed with him. He held onto her as he fell back into an uneven, fragile sleep.

X

The mountain loomed, forever distant, ever closer; Hiccup wanted terribly to reach it. Its peaks, wreathed in ice, snow, and gray clouds held something he needed, desperately needed, and wanted beyond understanding. He didn't know what it was, or why, but he knew he must get there.

The ocean lay far behind him, as impossibly far as the mountain seemed, and beyond his sight. But the ocean had moved away, so the mountain must have gotten that much closer. He had to keep going. Only trees stood behind him, tall, blue-green, ever stretching to the horizon. Hiccup ran between the trees. He didn't stop anymore to gauge his surroundings. He knew it would be the same, soundless, empty, like a painting.

The mountain, something told him, held the answers. He had no questions, but he sought the answers. The mountain had sound, movement, and the view of the world, a dragon's view from the sky.

His bare feet pounded on the grassy, dirt ground. He felt no rocks, twigs, or bumps. Only neutral, soft ground, each step hugging his foot as it weighted into the surface. Tree after tree, he ran, not wondering if the trees looked the same, or if he would ever reach the mountain's base, he would, he knew, but he couldn't stop. If he stopped, he would never reach it.

X

Viggo admired the colors of the sky before dusk. Beautiful, streaked with gold, but fading, and inked with danger. Dusk took the sky and brought night, and with it, darkness, leaving men in a world where control belonged to others. In the night, simple things became exponentially fearful, fantastically so, even though what lied in the darkness also lied in the sun, most of the time.

He had been afraid of the dark as a child, but only his brother knew that; Ryker knew better than to speak of such childish things. Ryker boasted that he feared nothing, and as far as Viggo knew, he didn't. His brutish kind didn't feel fear; their temperament leaned toward strength, and fear resigned in the mind. Viggo felt fear, but he also understood that fear resulted in not fully knowing or understanding, and so he felt no qualms about the fear he felt; he knew it wouldn't last.

A shout out on deck drew Viggo from his thoughts. The map before him came into view. On top of the normal map, he'd laid a detailed map of the norther waters. Too much farther and the ice would set in.

Viggo sat up straight. He hadn't been aware of slouching. Lazy men slouched.

A knock hit his door, and then it opened. Ryker walked inside, sword over his shoulder, scowl on his face.

"We've found the northern hunters," Ryker said.

"Good," Viggo said. "Invite Donet aboard, see him in."

"Aye," Ryker grunted and exited the cabin, shutting the door.

Viggo took a quick assessment of his quarters to make sure the order. Everything as it should be. Good. He hated to give the men any inclination that he held any sort of disorganization.

Voices came onto the deck, and the door to the cabin opened shortly after. Ryker walked inside, sword in hand, ready to strike. He trusted these shady northern hunters less than Viggo did.

Donet, leader of Viggo's northern hunters, came from a tribe used to the icy waters. His dark hair had knotted itself into long tangles. His crooked nose was a sorry sight, even for Vikings and pirates. He wore ratty furs and leathers of fat sea beasts, doubling his size.

"Report." Viggo didn't phrase it as a question. These men had wits of rocks.

"We've not got anything," Donet said. "Not since we handed off that vampire. We've seen the Night Fury once, but he was heading too fast in the opposite direction. Once we'd turned, we lost sight."

"What was his direction?" Viggo demanded.

"South."

Viggo shared a glanced with his brother; they thought the same. Dragon's Edge lay to the south.

"We spotted him near Shelm's Peak," Donet said. "That's past-"

"I know where it is," Viggo said. He glanced downed at his map to double-check. He'd been right. To the south of Shelm's Peak lay Dragon's Edge, a good day's journey. "You are dismissed. If you see the Night Fury, shoot it down. Alive. Both the dragon and the rider."

"Aye," Donet said, nodding.

Ryker escorted Donet out, and back to his ice-splitting ship. The door to the cabin closed, and Viggo leaned back in his chair.

Such interesting things.

When Ryker returned, he shut the door. He put his sword at his back, and looked at his brother.

"Well?" said Ryker. "What do you make of the Night Fury?"

"It could mean several things," Viggo said. "Some more likely than others. One reason is that we've found another Night Fury, one that's capable of flight on its own. Two, the vampires have taken the dragon in. Or, three, Hiccup survived."

"You think it was him flying near Shelm's Peak?"

"It's likely," Viggo said, not ready to admit fully that it had or hadn't been Hiccup. Viggo placed the tip of his dagger on the map, on the island labeled as Shelm's Peak. "It's been a waypoint for vampires for centuries."

"It could also have been that vampire," Ryker said. "The girl."

"That is also likely," Viggo said.

Ryker raised a brow.

Viggo sighed. "What is it, Brother?"

"Your tone," Ryker said, crossing his arms.

"What about it?"

"You'd rather it be the vampire on the dragon?" Ryker chuckled.

"I admit, part of me finds the idea of a vampire riding a Night Fury enthralling," Viggo said. "But it does not have anything to do with that specific vampire."

Ryker frowned. "So it's not her?"

Viggo considered his brother. He should not have let that information slip. "I said she looked like her. I did not say they were the same person."

"She's got her name, too," Ryker said. "I suppose that's a coincidence?"

"It might be."

Ryker laughed. "That's denial."

Viggo sighed, and slouched into his chair, hand on his temple. He didn't wish to talk about this anymore. "What would you have me do, Brother, if it was her? Scold her for being late?"

"Skin her alive," Ryker said without hesitation. "I hear vampire skin is a pricey item down south."

Viggo rubbed his temple harder.

"Tell me, just between us, was it her?" Ryker asked.

Viggo glared at Ryker. If he wasn't his brother, Ryker would have been skinned alive long ago. Viggo let out a long sigh, and then nodded his head. "Yes, I believe her the same girl. Remarkable how fate turns around."

Ryker let out a howl of a laugh. Someone shouted on deck, one of the crew, in a drunken slur, and Ryker seethed his way back onto the deck, shouting back. The door slammed behind him.

Viggo sat slouched for a moment longer. Shelm's Peak. The Night Fury. It all meant something, most likely the something that Viggo thought, but he was never one to assume. He needed proof that Hiccup had survived the turn. He needed proof that she was the girl he remembered.

He would be surprised if she wasn't. She looked like her. The eyes, the face, the temper. She looked like her mother. If she was her, then that witch of a mother had been right. The runt of a child had grown into her beauty.


	20. A Rift Grows

Hiccup woke up with a hand on his chest, a gentle touch. He opened his eyes. Astrid sat on the edge of the bed holding a cup. He smelled it, and took the cup from her outstretched hand. He swallowed the blood slower; he'd learned not to chug it.

She took the empty cup and set it on the table.

"I woke up a while ago," she said. "I thought you could use a meal before you talked to your family."

Hiccup sat up with a groan. "I almost forgot about that."

Astrid frowned. A tiny wrinkle appeared between her eyes. "You'll have to talk to him now."

"I know. I just hoped I could put it off until I…felt better, or more confident about this whole thing," Hiccup said. He rubbed his face with his hands.

Astrid laid a hand on his shoulder. She squeezed.

Hiccup set his hand over hers. She gave a sweet smile, but her tenderness laced with concern.

"Is it just your father?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. He'd told her about his mother, right? He sat up and swung his legs around, and sat beside her. "Gobber's here, so he might be able to defuse his anger before he kills us both."

"Gobber?" Astrid asked. "He's your dad's best friend, right?"

"He's like family," Hiccup said. "He's…it's hard to explain."

"Try me. Consider it a test of your explanation skills," she said with a smile, but that smile faded when Hiccup didn't return it.

"Gobber…" Hiccup began, then paused. He took a deep breath. "When Mom died, he sort of stepped in. When I couldn't talk to Dad, I went to Gobber. When Dad couldn't talk to me, he went to Gobber."

"That's sweet," Astrid said. "To have family that's not family. To have people that aren't related that care that much for you."

He heard the defeat in her tone, the twinge of jealousy. Hiccup reached for her hand, and held onto it. "You have me, Astrid."

She smiled, a true smile, and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. Her lips lingered against his cheek, as cold as they were warm, and Hiccup fought against the urge to turn and kiss those lips; everything in his body told him to. Astrid began to lean away, and he turned. His hand that held her arm pulled her closer. His free hand grabbed onto her shoulder. He lunged, and pushed his lips against hers.

She hummed against him, then kissed him back. Her hand traced along his chest, and ran up his throat to his chin. She rested her palm against his jaw.

They parted lips, but neither moved back from the other.

Hiccup didn't want to let her go. He didn't want to face his father. He didn't want to explain himself. Astrid already knew everything there was to know. He wanted to stay with her until his father went away.

He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. He felt her heart beating, slower than humans, the same pace as his own. If he had to live for six hundred years, he would gladly spend that time with Astrid.

"It's almost dusk," Astrid whispered. Her breath, fresh with blood, bounced onto his lips.

Hiccup sighed, taking in the warm scent, and pecked her lips one last time. He leaned away. "You're right."

Hiccup stood, still holding onto her hand, and she followed. Astrid opened the hut door first, and when she deemed the sun far enough down to not cause him trouble, she opened it all the way. Lights filled the clubhouse, more than usual.

"I see Dad doesn't trust us," Hiccup said.

"He's skeptical," Astrid said. "It's normal. You've already made it farther than most with this part."

"Let's hope it doesn't end in bloodshed," Hiccup said. He took a deep breath, and started toward the clubhouse.

He made it a few steps when Toothless came bounding from around the hut. He crashed into Hiccup, pinning him to the wooden walkway.

Hiccup laughed, and tried his best to keep the dragon's snout away from his face. Toothless sniffed through Hiccup's hair and then stepped back, allowing Hiccup to stand.

"Hey, bud," Hiccup said, patting Toothless's head.

 _Squawk_!

Toothless turned, and warbled.

The blue and yellow Deadly Nadder appeared through the trees.

"Well, look who's back," Hiccup said, grinning. He looked over his shoulder at Astrid. She smiled, too.

"Hey there, girl," Astrid said. She stepped toward the Deadly Nadder. It sniffed, and took several steps toward Astrid. They met, and the Deadly Nadder nuzzled into Astrid's hair, flicking her wings. Astrid laughed.

"Picked out a name, yet?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid's humor vanished. She turned to Hiccup. "What do you mean?"

"For your dragon," he said. He motioned to the Nadder. "It's obvious she's picked you."

Astrid blinked several times, then turned back to the Deadly Nadder. She stroked her chin, yearning a low warble from the dragon's throat.

"Stormfly," Astrid said, more to the dragon than to Hiccup.

"That was fast," Hiccup said.

Astrid looked down. "I, uh, might have given it some thought. I had trouble falling back asleep."

Hiccup grinned; Astrid laughed when Stormfly nuzzled her stomach and sent her off balance. Astrid clung to her horn to keep from stumbling backward. Stormfly lifted Astrid off the ground.

"Hiccup?" called Heather. She stood just outside the clubhouse.

"Be there in a minute," Hiccup said, waving.

Stoick appeared from over Heather's shoulder, and Hiccup's heart plummeted into his stomach. He dropped his hand. His father scowled like he'd just screwed up again, a look he hadn't seen for three years.

Astrid laughed, and the sound lifted his spirits. She stood with Stormfly, oblivious to the death glare Stoick gave her.

Hiccup inhaled, patted Toothless, and started toward the clubhouse. Astrid jogged to walk beside him. The dragons chatted to each other, and stayed behind to play. Stoick had gone back into the brightly lit clubhouse by the time that Hiccup and Astrid arrived; they'd cooked mutton, it smelled like, and even though empty plates scattered the table, the smell lingered as strong as if just brought from the fire.

Everyone gathered. No one said a word.

"Don't you all have chores?" Stoick barked.

Snotlout opened his mouth, but Heather slapped her hand over it. "Yes, we do."

"We will get to that," Fishlegs added. He and Heather pushed Snotlout out, followed by the twins.

That left Hiccup and Astrid alone with Stoick and Gobber.

"So, uh, here we are," Hiccup said, motioning to the hut.

"Sit," Stoick ordered.

Hiccup sat at the table. Astrid sat beside him.

"Not you," Stoick said, pointing at Astrid. "I want to talk to my son without you."

"She's fine," Hiccup said.

"No," Stoick said firmly. "I want her gone."

Astrid stood.

"Astrid, wait," Hiccup said, reaching for her arm.

"It'll be fine," Astrid said, although doubt lingered. "I'll be outside if you need me."

Astrid walked back outside into the night, and a squawk signaled she'd reached the dragons.

"My son," Stoick started, less fierce than he'd been a moment before. "A vampire. Thor, give me strength."

Stoick sank into one of the seats, and then Hiccup understood. He hadn't wanted everyone out to poke and prod for the truth. He'd wanted them out because he couldn't handle them seeing him like this, confused, deflated, worried.

"What now?" Stoick asked Hiccup.

"I don't know," Hiccup said, shrugging. "According to Astrid, I've got six hundred to a thousand years to live now. I thought I might see the rest of the world. Really expand the map and see what else it out there."

Stoick sighed.

Hiccup continued, "There's a map maker vampire that's been all over the world. I want to see it, too."

"Vampire map maker?" Stoick said.

Hiccup nodded.

"Where did you meet that one?"

Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. "I can't tell you."

"Vampire secret?"

"Yes. They've got a home that no one knows about. It keeps them safe from hunters."

"And you've been there?"

"Yes, I'm technically one of them now. Extended family."

Stoick growled. "I don't like it. What's to stop them from coming to Berk and taking over?"

"They're not like that, Dad," Hiccup said. "At least the vampires I met aren't anything like that. They aren't savage, killing machines like you think they are. They're just people with a special diet."

"You've…" Stoick motioned, face pale.

"I'm on that special diet, too."

Stoick let out a low sigh.

"They drink more boar blood that I would have guessed," Hiccup said.

Stoick rubbed his face in his hands. "What a mess. How have you gotten yourself into it, son?"

Hiccup laughed. "It's not so different from how I met Toothless."

Stoick glared over his fingers.

Hiccup took a breath, and dove into the story of how he met Astrid. As he retold the fateful events one after the other, he watched his father's expressions. He shook his head repeatedly, sighed, and growled. Hiccup couldn't tell if he felt more agitation, anger, or anxiety, or a combination of the three.

"Your kindness will get you killed one of these days, Hiccup," Stoick said.

"Well, it hasn't yet," Hiccup said.

Stoick glared. "Tell me, what do you know about her?"

"Her? Astrid?"

He nodded.

Hiccup opened his mouth, but nothing came to mind.

"Where is she from? What's her last name? Does she have a tribe?"

"Allergies?" Gobber chimed in.

"I don't know," Hiccup said. Astrid had been careful with that information.

Stoick and Gobber looked at each other.

"Why?" Hiccup asked. "What is it?"

"She looks like Hildegard," Gobber said. "Spitting image of the old bag."

"Who?" Hiccup looked to his father. He had a horrible feeling. "Who's this Hildegard? Hofferson? Finn's wife?"

"Old Hildegard Hofferson," Stoick said lowly. "Finn and Harald's mother."

"Leave it to Finn to marry a woman with the same name as his mother," Gobber added.

"Okay," Hiccup nodded. "I know Finn Hofferson, but Harald?"

"Is Finn's brother," Stoick said. "He spent most of his years at sea. He brought home a woman from some port town, five months pregnant, claimed to be married. Load of yak dung if you ask me, but we had no proof he was lying. He lived in Berk for a while, with that whore of a wife and two daughters. Then he up and moved without a word."

"That's, uh, a great story, Dad," Hiccup said. "What does it have to do with anything?"

"That oldest daughter of his," Stoick said, and lowered his voice to a whisper, "was named Astrid."

Hiccup bit into his lip. "Okay."

"Don't you see?" Stoick said. He pointed toward the door. "That girl looks like Finn's mother. His brother had a daughter by the same name."

"That doesn't mean it's the same girl," Hiccup said.

"Did you ask her what her last name was?"

Hiccup shrugged. "No. I haven't."

"You should. See what she says."

"And if she's the girl you're thinking of? What happens then?" Hiccup threw his arms out. "Then she'd be from Berk, too, just like me. It wouldn't prove anything."

Stoick sighed, and nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't."

"You think she'd be a whore like her mother?" Hiccup asked, looking at his father.

"Women always grow up to be their mothers," Gobber said, finger moving as he recalled the words. "At least most of the time."

"Astrid's not like that, alright?" Hiccup said. "If it wasn't for her…I don't know. I'd be a lot worse off."

"Tell me son," Stoick asked. "Did she turn you?"

Hiccup hesitated, and that pause gave Stoick his answer. He leaned back, nostrils flared.

"Dad, she didn't do it on purpose," Hiccup said, half pleading. "Viggo, he…starved her into a blind frenzy. He kept her in the sun. She…didn't know what she was doing. After she…bit me," Hiccup place a hand on his neck. He still remembered the sting of her fangs digging into this flesh, "she cried."

"Women can cry on command," Stoick said, but look elsewhere. He huffed. "You trust that vampire?"

"Yes," Hiccup said.

"Fine." Stoick shifted in the seat that had been made for someone half his size. "What about Berk, then? What about Dragon's Edge? Your friends?"

"I don't know," Hiccup said. "I'm still figuring that out."

"You can't be chief if you're a vampire," Stoick said.

Hiccup sighed. "I might. Some vampires can stand the sunlight. Astrid said I'm still young, but I can build up a tolerance to it."

"And if Berk won't accept you?"

"Then I guess someone else can be chief," Hiccup said. "And, as we know, Berk can change. They accepted dragons. They accepted me. Who knows, they might accept a vampire as chief, too."

"It might be seen as a symbol of power," Gobber said, fist in the air. "No one would want to mess with Berk if they thought we had dragons and vampires on our side."

"Or they'd charge in to eliminate the problem," Stoick said.

"Come on, Dad," Hiccup said. "I'm still your son. I'm still me."

Stoick gave him a long, hard look. The silence in the clubhouse grew thick enough to suffocate.

"Dad?" Hiccup asked.

"I know," Stoick said. "But I can see a change in you. Your eyes aren't the same. Any Viking on Berk could see something off about you, and it wouldn't take them long to figure it out."

"Just let me talk to Berk, I can-"

"No," Stoick said at once. "Stay away from Berk."

Hiccup gapped.

"They don't know that anything's happened. I kept it a secret until we knew if you'd lived or died. Not even the council knows. If you go home now claiming to be a vampire, they'd slaughter you. I don't want you taking that chance," Stoick said.

"Then what can I do?" Hiccup asked. Never go back to Berk?

Stoick sighed, and tapped his fingers on the table.

"We can recreate the events," Gobber said.

They both turned to him.

"We can pretend to receive a letter from Heather claiming Hiccup's been gone too long after taking a vampire home," Gobber started, "and Yohann can give us 'news' from the vampire break-in at Viggo's, and we can work our way down the chain until we've received news that Hiccup's alive. Then they'll all be as glad as we were."

"It's worth a try," Stoick said.

"Don't worry, Dad," Hiccup said.

"I'm a chief. It's my job to worry." Stoick stood.

"It's late, stay here tonight," Hiccup said.

Stoick gave Gobber a look, then turned his gaze to Hiccup. Did he see distrust?

"Dad," Hiccup groaned. "Do you really think I'd bite you in your sleep?"

"I don't know," Stoick said. "I'm not sure what vampires do."

"Astrid and I will hunt down a boar on the other side of the island. We also can take the night patrol. We won't even come back to the Edge until morning, unless I want to work on Inferno or something. I've got some tweaks to make to my leg. I might be at the forge."

"Fine," Stoick said. "But I doubt I'll get a wink of sleep knowing I've got vampires watching out for me."

Hiccup laughed, but it felt hollow.


	21. Hidden in the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut incoming - you've been warned.

Hiccup offered his hut to his father and Gobber, but they declined.

"I'm not going to be sleeping, Dad," Hiccup said. "It's fine."

"No, no, we'll be alright on our own," Stoick reassured him.

"We've spent plenty of nights on the ground and another won't kill us," Gobber said, laughed, and then grew silent. "Hopefully."

Hiccup sighed. "We won't."

Stoick huffed. "If you try, Skullcrusher would…well, wake me up, or something."

"Yes, he would," Hiccup said. "So, you are fine."

Hiccup led the way out of the clubhouse and into the last of the twilight; barely a strand of light gleamed over the horizon. Millions of stars glittered above. He spotted Astrid with the dragons on the other side of a clearing.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Dad," Hiccup said.

Stoick hesitated, then nodded. "I suppose."

Stoick and Gobber headed toward the beach.

"Oh, gods…" Hiccup groaned into his hands. He rolled his head on his shoulders. He started toward Astrid, who spotted him first. She smiled, and his warmed his insides, but her smile waned.

"How did it go?" She asked it without joy.

Hiccup shrugged. "It depends. He didn't kill me, so, I guess it went well. He's…distant. I can tell he doesn't know what to think about me. He said I should stay away from Berk for a while. If they found out what happened, they might go crazy."

Astrid's brows came together. "I'm sorry. It could have been a lot worse."

"I know," he said. Toothless warbled and nudged his hand. Hiccup rested his palm against his dry scales.

Toothless hadn't given him reason to worry about his state. He'd been there regardless. Dragons had the capacity for unconditional loyalty, unlike people, and Hiccup hadn't been so grateful for it. He wrapped his arms around Toothless and hugged him close.

"Thanks, bud." He turned to Astrid. "What do you think about a flight?"

Astrid blinked. She turned toward Stormfly, who chirped. She nudged Astrid's shoulder.

"Yeah," Astrid said, patting Stormfly's snout.

"Don't worry," Hiccup said. "I can make a saddle for her in no time."

He hadn't lied; they had old saddles lying around the stables and plenty of supplies for new ones. He led Astrid and Stormfly to the stables, where he adjusted one of the older saddles and showed Astrid how to buckle it under Stormfly's belly. Stormfly bent down to let Astrid on her back.

"See? She's ready to go."

Astrid climbed onto the saddle.

"Quick notes," Hiccup said, holding onto the saddle so Stormfly wouldn't take off. "Let Stormfly do the flying. Guide her in the direction you want to go, but she'll do the rest. So, don't worry. She doesn't want to crash any more than you do."

"Okay," Astrid nodded.

Hiccup climbed onto Toothless's saddle, and took off from the stable runway. Stormfly followed. He glanced over his shoulder; Astrid clung to the saddle. Hiccup laughed. It didn't take long for Astrid for loosen her grip. A few laps around the Edge, and she laughed.

Astrid's laugher eased the rock in his stomach. He wanted to ask her about her family, about her home, but he didn't want to. She'd been skiddish of those questions from the start. If her family came from Berk, it wouldn't change anything. Would she be upset at what his father told him? Or would she open up and tell him more?

He didn't know what to do. If he couldn't go back to Berk…what would he do? He understood Astrid's reluctance to return home where she wasn't wanted. If Berk shunned him, a part of him would die. Berk was home. It was part of him.

The wind whisked away his thoughts. In the sky, nothing mattered. Everything felt far away and out of mind.

The moon had risen into the sky by the time they landed by the mountain springs. The humid air rushed out of the cavern, and burst into mist as it hit the cool air. The dragons played outside. Hiccup walked inside and slumped against one of the dry walls.

"Are you alright?" Astrid asked, quick behind him.

"I don't know…I'm just," Hiccup tried to find the word. "I don't know what I should do. Should I abandon my humanity and become a vampire fulltime? Should I hold on to what I've got as long as I can?"

Astrid hesitated. "I don't know the answer. I didn't have anything to hold on to."

"Astrid," he started, but hesitated.

"What is it?" She knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Hiccup heaved a sigh. "Was your dad's name Harald?"

Astrid blinked several times. She removed her hand from his shoulder, and sat back on her heels. Hiccup saw the answer on her face; confusion at how he knew such a thing; what to say to him; how to proceed with something she'd kept secret; anger at how he found out.

"He was," she said quietly. Her browns scrunched. "How do you know that?"

"My dad told me."

"How does your dad…"

"Astrid," Hiccup said calmly. He reached out to her arm and pulled it toward him, sliding his hands down her arm until he held her hand.

He told her all that his father and Gobber had told him. She didn't pull her hand out of his, but she looked to the ground several times, avoiding his gaze. Her shoulders slumped.

When he'd finished, she sighed. "What are the odds."

"Astrid?"

"I am a Hofferson," she said. "My dad is Harald. I know he had a brother named Finn that he didn't like, because their mother liked Finn more. I know she was Hildegard. It…fits, I guess."

Hiccup smiled, but Astrid frowned.

"This means that Berk is your home, too."

"How? I've never been there. The people there don't know me. The Hoffersons probably hate me. From what I heard from my parents, they weren't well-liked. It's not hard to see why. My father was bitter and my mother was…a whore, for lack of a better word. She used to joke that she didn't know who my dad really was, and Dad used to get so mad at her. I had blonde hair, like Dad, but my sister had dark hair, which my Dad took to mean that she wasn't really his. It made childhood fun."

"Astrid, if I go back to Berk, I want you to come with me," Hiccup said.

Astrid glanced up at him with wide yes. "Hiccup, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? Berk is your home, like it or not. You're a Hofferson. You've got family there. You can see the home you almost had."

She squeezed her eyes closed.

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked softly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just thought…maybe."

"I think you should let your dad and Gobber work their plan before you go to Berk," she said, eyes closed. She opened them. "It's safer than flying in without a plan."

"Astrid?"

"It's fine, Hiccup," she said, standing. She pulled her hand out of his. "I'm done with trying to fit in among people. It never works. Berk won't be any different. It's not worth getting your hopes up only to watch your dreams shatter into pieces."

"Berk is different," he said.

She didn't answer.

X

They bathed in the hot springs. They sat in separate springs with their backs to each other, within sight range. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder at her more than once. The water glimmered on her pale back. She pulled her hair over her shoulder, like she knew he watched, and he felt the effects she had on him. His heart beat faster. He couldn't think of anything else but her, and nothing else mattered.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, filling the cavern springs with her voice.

He swallowed. "Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"If I told you, you'd throw something at me," he chuckled.

She hummed a laugh. "Really? Is it that bad?"

"I wouldn't call it 'bad,' just…not entirely clean."

"Close your eyes," she said.

"What?"

"Just do it!"

"Okay," he said, closing his eyes. "They are closed."

"Keep them closed until I say."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Water splashed. Skin met the stone, a hand, then a foot, dripping wet. Footsteps padded across the stone ground, coming closer.

"Keep them closed."

"I am."

The footsteps stopped. The water in his spring moved. Hiccup sucked his breath back in. Gods help him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, so close that his heart might have stopped.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm good, I'm…" He chuckled. "I can't breathe, but I'm good."

"You can open your eyes," she whispered.

His heart hitched. He hadn't seen a woman without clothes. He knew what lied underneath, but only in theory. He'd heard about things, had seen crude drawings, listened to lustful stories. Astrid sat in his spring, wet hair draping her shoulders like spun gold. The water came to her chest, covering her breasts. Her pale body shifted shape in the moving, steaming waters.

No clever word or wit came to his aid. He sat within her sights, motionless.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Her shy smile melted something inside of him, and he couldn't contain himself.

Gods, she was beautiful.

And he was…he didn't know. He'd never been naked in front of a girl, or anyone, really. He'd tried his best to keep his boney body covered up. He knew what it probably looked like, like a leather-wrapped skeleton. He didn't need anyone to solidify that worry with words.

And yet, Astrid didn't look at him with disgust or pity. Curiosity lit her eyes, with something wide and waiting behind it. Gods only knew what she thought.

They sat far enough apart that they did not touch. Hiccup scooted a little closer to her, and in response, she scooted closer to him. The met in the middle. Hiccup found the smooth skin of her waist, and ran his fingers along her sides. She held onto his shoulders, and leaned up to kiss him, and kept room between her chest and his. She ran her hands through his semi-dry hair, nudging his scalp with her nails.

Somehow, they'd backed up to the spring's side. Astrid, to keep the space between them small, straddled his lap, a thigh on either side of his, and Hiccup couldn't breathe. She sat far enough back she didn't touch his manhood, but it didn't matter. Her bare thighs touched his. Course hair that did not belong to him graced his thigh as they kissed. Her breasts, although distorted by the water, moved dangerously close.

It happened to be very lucky she had not sat closer to his groin. When they broke apart to breathe, his manhood stood as hard as it could have.

Hiccup thought of Gobber, of Gobber's outhouse, of the smell of a week-old pile of yak dung, of anything besides Astrid, or her breasts, or the smooth skin underneath his hands. She smiled at him. The remaining blood in his body rushed to his erection, despite his efforts.

"Are you okay?" she whispered. She wiggled, and her movement wiggled his legs, which wiggled everything else. He gulped.

It twitched, and he hoped more than anything she wouldn't notice. Then again, he wished she would.

"Hiccup?" she asked, leaning closer.

"I'm okay," he said, too high to be truth.

She raised a brow and grinned. "Really?"

"It's just…uh, I've not…well…and you…" How to say it? "You're really attractive."

She smiled, and if he was not mistaken, which he could have been – he had other things on his mind – a light blush flooded her cheeks.

"You're not too bad yourself," she said.

He laughed. "Now I know I'm dreaming. I'm still sleeping in my bed. Or in a coma. Because I know this isn't really happening."

"It's not?"

"Nope."

"And how do you figure that?"

"Because there's no way on Odin's green earth that I'm sitting naked in a hot spring with a naked girl that thinks I'm attractive."

She chuckled, and pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. Her fangs stuck out on either side, and it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Especially not with my…" he coughed his words out before he said it.

"Your what?"

His face burned. "Nothing."

She inched closer. She laid a hand on his chest. "Are you sure it's nothing?"

"Yup. One hundred percent," he said with a nod of his head. "Nothing at – ah!"

Astrid's hand closed around his erect self. In sure reflex, he closed his hand over hers, which caused another array of shocking emotions he'd never thought he'd feel. His breath came in torrents, batting against him without mercy. Astrid leaned in close, her lips grazing his cheek. She pecked him, a chaste kiss when compared to where her hand was.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, a girlish giggle on her lips.

"Well," he started, swallowing hard, "to be honest…"

She laughed and kissed his cheek again. "Mamie told me once that if a man saw a naked woman and didn't get hard, then it'd be a problem."

He tried to laugh, but found his breath increasingly difficult to control.

Her hand moved, her fingers twitched underneath his. She leaned in closer to him. "I've never touched a man before."

"Congratulations," he said.

She kissed his cheek again. "Show me how."

"What?" he asked, turning toward her. A hungry curiosity shone in her eyes.

Shaking, he loosened his grip on her hand, and widened his fingers around hers. He ran both of their hands down his length and back again, until she had the motion. He released his hand. The surface water undulated with the action and occasionally slopped over the sides. Hiccup held in his moans as best he could, but he hadn't prepared for this. Astrid's hand pushed out sounds he didn't know he could make.

Astrid paused just long enough to kiss him. "You don't have to be quiet. No one's listening but me."

Hiccup took her lips in his own. Her hand paused, but he didn't mind. He traced her body from her waist to her chin, and held her jaw as he kissed her. They broke apart and she continued. It wouldn't take long, he felt it.

He slid his hands down her chest, and earned a shudder from her lips. He held her breasts in his hands, and it sent a fire through his limbs. He squeezed, and she bit into her lip. He ran his fingers over the center, and she made the tiniest of sounds, more erotic than anything he could have dreamed up, and he repeated his action to hear it again.

She worked him; they kissed; he touched her. He moaned into her, gasped as he felt it coming closer. He reached for Astrid's hand and gave her the last boost of speed she needed, then it erupted and left him feel wobbly.

Astrid released him, and left a long kiss on his lips. Hiccup held onto her, but his wobbly arms couldn't hold her as she moved. She sat beside him, legs draped over his. Shame crept up inside of him.

"Bad?" she asked.

"No," Hiccup said. "Unexpected, but not bad."

She leaned in, and he turned to meet her lips with his. He reached for her, flattening his hands on her waist. Astrid gently gripped his fingers. Her lips hovered over his as she moved his hand down her stomach.

Gods help him.

With her initiative, he reached between her legs, that she widened for him. With his other hand, he pulled her closer. Astrid leaned into him as he explored her slick, warm, and soft folds of skin.

"Show me how," he said in her ear.

She smiled, although her cheeks were red, and kissed him. She guided his hand, and pressed his finger into her.

"There," she said.

He ran his finger along the spot, and with her simple instructions, he touched her. He drank the sounds she made. She dropped her head onto his shoulder, and his other hand cupped her breast. She squirmed as if shocked, but moaned pleasure. When she finished, she latched onto the arm attached to the hand that touched her, and off her breath fell his name.

"Hiccup," she repeated, and collapsed back into his chest.

Hiccup kissed her neck, fought the urge to sink his teeth into her pulse, and hugged her limp body close to his.

They dried by lying on the cavern floor, side by side. Hiccup no longer worried about her seeing him naked, and spent much of the time memorizing the way the dim light danced on her skin.

He would find other things to remember and worry about, but right now, all that mattered laid beside him.


	22. Addition

The light from the forge didn't bother Hiccup as much as he'd anticipated. He set the iron over the coals, and pumped the heat upward. He'd had some improvements designed for his leg, but he hadn't had the time to get around to them. His current leg didn't hold up well with his new speed or strength, and the improvements had become necessary.

He heard Stormfly land on the walkway behind him, and two softer feet landed beside her. He smelled her first, then bittersweet, and then Astrid appeared at his side. She held a closed jar in her hand. Blood.

"I had to use a lid so it wouldn't spill," Astrid said. She handed him the jar.

"Thank you," he said.

He grasped the jar in both hands, and ran his fingers along hers as he took it. He drank the warm contents. He didn't want to admit it, but blood tasted better fresh. The longer it was exposed to the air, the less it tasted like anything. It grew gummy and stale.

He set the empty jar on his workbench, disgusted that those types of thoughts would pass through his head.

"What are you working on?" Astrid asked.

She meandered to the other side of the forge, within his view as he worked. She moved with such grace. Hiccup didn't think he moved any different, which meant he would either grow into his vampiric grace, or Astrid had been graceful as a human, too. He was leaning toward the latter.

"My leg," he said. "I've got some improvements."

"Ah," Astrid said.

Her blue eyes drifted over the heating iron pieces, and to the workbench, where Hiccup had pinned several designs, some of which had been created and some hadn't.

What was she thinking? Her eyes held none of the criticizing judgement that he'd seen in others when they'd seen his scrapbook.

After a moment, she said, "I didn't realize you were this crafty."

"I was Gobber's apprentice for a long time," Hiccup said. "I wasn't good at anything else, so he took me in."

"And Gobber is the blacksmith?"

"Yes," he said. "He's one of the best."

Those blue eyes of hers locked on his, and he felt a shiver run through his spine.

She leaned against the desk, and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he said immediately. He'd always be fine with her around.

Her stare didn't wane, and after a moment, he sighed, and added, "I'm just…if I can't go back to Berk, I don't know. It feels like…I'm stretching."

She nodded, her lips in a straight line. "I know. We've all been there."

"I keep trying to think about other things, but my mind always goes back to this whole vampire situation," he said. The iron had begun to redden. "I still have a role here, on the Edge. Viggo is still out there, and we still have to stop him. He still has the Dragon Eye. He is still hurting dragons."

Astrid bit into her lip. "Why is this Dragon Eye important?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I-I don't know. It has a lot of information about different dragons. We found it, and then Viggo wanted it so badly."

"You want to know why he wanted it so badly?"

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded. "And I haven't really had the time to worry about Viggo or the Dragon Eye for a while now, and since things are starting to calm down, I've been thinking about him again."

"If Viggo thinks you're dead, you can sneak up on him," Astrid said.

"I could," he said.

"Okay," Astrid said, standing up straight. "What's the plan, then?"

"Plan?"

"To hunt down Viggo and stop him from hurting dragons," she said, like it had been obvious. "And anyone else."

"Up until now we've kind of been running into each other. We scout and look for his ships, and attack them and free the dragons," he said. Admitting it out loud made it sound like a horrible plan. He was supposed to be a leader, a chief. Of course, that part of his future may never happen. Not now.

"Then let's hit him," Astrid said, hands on her hips. "Sink every last damn ship of his and with any luck he'll go down with them."

Hiccup chuckled. "Why the sudden enthusiasm?"

She shrugged. "You might not believe this, but life up north isn't exactly a thrill ride. Not a lot happens. Which, don't get me wrong, I like, but sometimes I'd like a little more action. And, Viggo hunts vampires, too. People like him just need killing."

"Are you sure you're ready for it? I mean, being a dragon hunter isn't always a picnic."

"I've been training for things like this," Astrid said, hands on her hips. "For years. I had to do something to keep from going insane up north."

He didn't doubt it. He said, "Okay, Dragon Rider. We'll start with the basics when I get this new leg done."

"Basics of dragon riding?"

"Yeah," he said. "There's more to it than just riding a dragon. We fly in formation. We have tactics and plans in case someone goes down."

Astrid raised a brow.

"We've made it up as we go, mostly," Hiccup said. "As we needed it. But, after three years, I'd like to think we're a pretty good group."

She smiled. "Okay. How much longer until you're done? I want to get started."

He laughed. "Give me an hour or so."

Astrid pouted, but didn't argue. She hoisted herself up onto the workbench, and sat.

Hiccup continued to work on his leg. Using tongs, he lifted the white-hot metal. While he worked on his new foot, Astrid watched.

He'd like to stop Viggo from hunting dragons and vampires, but would he be willing to kill him in order to stop him? If it came down to it, he would like to think he would. If it were him or Viggo, he would save himself. But he didn't want it to end in bloodshed if he could help it.

And Berk. What to do about Berk? It was his home and always would be. He would like to think that the people there would accept him no matter what, if he could show them that vampires weren't the vicious beasts they thought, or that at least he and Astrid weren't. But how? If he exposed himself, would they give him time to explain without hurdling an axe at him or sending a stake through his heart in the daytime?

Would the vampire stronghold become his home?

"Is there a time when you have to go back to the vampire base?" Hiccup asked, if only to fill the silence between them.

She shrugged. "I don't have to go back. I don't have a deadline or curfew. We come and go as we please."

"Astrid," he said, pausing his hammering of the iron. "I don't want to choose between being a human or being a vampire. I want both. I can't settle for one or the other. I don't know how, but I'll make it work. I will stay at the edge and work to stop the dragon hunters."

He looked up at her to gauge her reaction. She wore an unreadable expression.

After a moment, she nodded, and said, "Okay. That's fine. I don't have a set plan for my future, but I'd like to be where you are."

He grinned. "I'd like that."

She swung her arms outward and folded them across her chest. "I'm your guide, after all, and I'm here for you. It would be mean of me to leave you on your own."

He set the hammer down, and closed the space between them. He set his hands on either side of her, on the workbench. "I like having you around."

"Good, because I'm not going anywhere," she said.

He leaned in, and she met him; they kissed. He set his hands on her waist, the smooth waist he'd touched earlier. The memories of her skin underneath his hands set his bones on fire.

Somewhere in his gut, he still felt the sheer surprise and disbelief that he could hold such a beautiful creature as Astrid, and a vampire at that. Yet, there she stood, in his arms, with her hands draped about his collar bone, and her lips against his.

He felt it then, the bone-deep need, the urge for blood, but not just any blood. Hers. Her smell filled his nostrils, invaded his senses, and he wanted nothing but her.

He kissed her cheek, and trailed soft kisses down her jaw, to her neck, where her pulse beat slowly beneath the surface.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, her voice higher.

He snapped out of his daze; he held her waist in a tight grip. As he removed his hands, she exhaled. She brought a hand to where his had been.

"Astrid," Hiccup gasped. He took a step back. "I-I didn't…gods, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she said, hand still on her side. She looked up at him, and something inside broke with the pain in her eyes. "I know you didn't mean to."

He'd almost bitten her. He'd wanted to.

"This morning," Astrid started, then hesitated. "I…"

She closed her mouth and took her bottom lip between her teeth. Her fangs stuck out on either side.

"Do you regret it?" Hiccup asked.

Her eyes darted to his. For a moment, hesitation and doubt surged in her eyes. She blinked, and those feelings vanished.

She shook her head, and whispered, "No."

"Neither do I," he said, and closed that space between them again. He waited for her to put a hand on his chest, to push him away, to keep him at a distance, but she didn't.

He didn't touch the spot on her waist where he'd gripped her. Instead he put his hands on the workbench, on either side of her. She touched the front of his shirt, toyed with the ties, and eased her arms around his shoulders. She bit her lip again, and tilted her head to the side, exposing the smooth, white flesh of her neck to his mouth.

His heart sped. He put his lips to her neck, and grazed her skin with his teeth. She shuddered, and he closed her arms around her. She fit so snuggly against him. He kissed her, and poised her fangs against her.

He understood what they'd meant by affection in biting one another. He could feel Astrid's life in his arms, and he wanted to be a part of it. He wanted to taste her.

He angled his mouth to bite, when a shrill, distant squawk rang out.

Hiccup pulled away from her and she pulled away from him.

"What was that?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup dashed out of the forge and onto the open decking around his hut. Toothless and Stormfly had heard the cry, too, and stood alert and weary.

"What is it, bud?" Hiccup called down to Toothless.

Toothless warbled, but didn't take his eyes from the sky.

Hiccup glanced in the direction the cry came from.

"There," Astrid said, standing beside Hiccup. She pointed. "What's that?"

Hiccup followed her finger to a small, moving dot. It came toward them. It cried out again, only this time Hiccup recognized the cry.

"A Night Terror," Hiccup said.

"A dragon?"

"It's the early warning signal," Hiccup said, jumping down to the deck below where Toothless stood. "They've seen something. Come on, take this as your first official dragon rider's test."

Astrid jumped down, and climbed onto Stormfly's saddle. Stormfly and Toothless took off toward the direction the Night Terror had come.

"What about the others?" Astrid asked.

"The Night Terrors are trained to wake us all up," Hiccup said. He glanced back. Sure enough, the Night Terror had gone into Heather's hut. "They'll be right behind us."

They flew toward the eastern side of the island, racing through the night. As they crested over the trees, Hiccup saw what had spooked the Night Terror. Three ships sailed halfway to the horizon. Hiccup reached for his spyglass.

"Yup," he said. "Those are dragon hunter ships."

"What are they doing?" Astrid asked.

"Probably looking for wayward dragons."

"No, I mean, if they're this close to the Edge, why not attack? Why go just inside our view?"

Hiccup glanced at her. "You think they're trying to trick us?"

"It's Viggo," she said.

"True," he said, nodding. "But, we can't just let them go if they've got dragons on board. They might be going by at night to avoid us, too."

"Maybe," Astrid said. "What do we do about it?"

"Toothless and I will go in low," Hiccup said. "We'll surprise them, draw their attention, and then you attack from the air. Our goal is to free the dragons in the holds. Watch out for the arrows, they're tipped with dragon root. They'll shoot nets. Got it?"

"Got it!" Astrid grabbed the handle bars of the saddle and leaned forward, eyes on the ships.

Hiccup and Toothless took off toward the ships and Astrid headed for the clouds. They flew close to the water, and dodged between the ships, until they reached the leader. Someone on the deck sneezed, and Toothless shot up and blasted the net-throwing catapult off the deck. The deck underneath it exploded, sending splinters in every direction, and the catapult landed in the water on the other side of the ship.

The dragon hunters scattered, but soon got their bearings. They had little time to react; a Deadly Nadder's white-hot blast hit just before them, and they stumbled backward, dropping burning crossbows. A few held their hands close to their bodies, coddling burns.

Several others backed away at the sudden burn; they hadn't expected the dragon riders to actually burn them.

He didn't have time to warn Astrid not to kill any of them; the other ships had joined the battle, as had the other riders. Hiccup landed on deck of the first ship, and ran to the hold. A dragon hunter appeared, holding a mace over his head. Toothless growled, but a well-aimed Nadder spine shot the mace from the man's grip. Three more landed on the deck between Hiccup and the hunter.

Hiccup, with Toothless's help, yanked the hold's door up and jumped down. He jumped onto Toothless's back and pulled the release mechanisms for the doors. They reached the end of the hall, and the entire ship shuddered. Water surged.

"Let's get out of here, bud, before Astrid sinks the ship," Hiccup said.

He reattached himself to the saddle and they shot out of the hold behind the rest of the dragons, who flew off into the night. Dragons emerged from the hold of the second ship, and then the third, with all the dragon riders still accounted for, including a yellow and blue Nadder.

The second ship went down, and Hiccup called off the attack so the remaining hunters would have a vessel to sail away on. He didn't want them swimming to the Edge. As the dragon hunter ship sailed away empty-handed, and the freed dragons flew into the night in all directions, Hiccup guided the dragon riders back to the Edge.

"That was some nice flying," Heather said.

Fishlegs added, "And we could use a Nadder on our side. The spines come in handy."

"Yeah, yeah," Snotlout said. "Not as much as the nightmare gel. Just so we're clear."

"Thanks," Astrid said, uncertainty in her tone.

"That's some impressive bonding," Fishlegs said. "She really listens to you."

Hiccup inhaled the cool night air. Astrid would be a fine rider, and the others seemed to be warming up to her. Maybe they didn't have to go back to the vampire north after all. Maybe they could stay here, as dragon riders, on the Edge. They could open it as a dragon training school.

It was a fanciful thought, and it warmed the nerves that his father had struck. Somewhere in his gut, he felt the uncertainty. They'd faced numerous dragon hunter ships before, and something told him that this attack had gone too smoothly, too easy.

"What did you name her?" Heather asked.

"Stormfly."

"I like it."

"Me, too."

"It fits, somehow."

Hiccup pushed those thoughts aside, and thought instead about having Astrid as a dragon rider. He liked those thoughts.


	23. Plunge

Hiccup suppressed a yawn; dawn was still a while off.

"I doubt Viggo sent those ships by accident," Heather said. She stood by the hearth of the clubhouse, arms crossed, brows knit close together. "Even if he didn't, those hunters would have known better that to sail to close to Dragon's Edge."

"I agree," Hiccup said.

"But what does it all mean?" Fishlegs asked.

"It means that something else is going on," Hiccup said. He glanced at Astrid, who leaned against the doorframe. Her eyes locked onto the flickering hearth fire. As if summoned by his glance, she looked up, and those icy orbs settled on his, and somehow transferred the warmth of the hearth into his body.

"Viggo doesn't do anything accidently," Heather said.

"He's checking on you," Astrid said.

At her voice, the clubhouse went quiet. Heather turned around to face Astrid, and all other sets of eyes darted upward.

Astrid hesitated, then continued, "Those hunters saw Hiccup on Toothless. They now know he's alive. This takes away the advantage of surprise."

"Then when those ships reach Viggo," Heather said, "He will know about Hiccup."

Astrid nodded. "Either Hiccup survived the attack with the vampire, or he's turned. More likely, Viggo will know that you're one of us."

"Then we need to stop those ships from getting to Viggo," Heather said, with more menace that a moment before. She grabbed the handle of her duel ended axe and whipped both ends out.

"What?" Hiccup stuttered. He threw out his hands. "Wait, no, we can't let those hunters drown out there."

"They'd let you drown," Astrid said.

"She's right," Heather said. "Besides, they've made their moral choice."

Hiccup began to panic. "That doesn't mean they can't undo their moral choice. I-I mean, look at Berk. All of them did. No, Heather, let's not jump to violence so quickly."

He met Astrid's gaze. She considered him with a curiosity he hadn't felt from her in a while, a warm curiosity that set his minimal blood on fire.

"Then what should we do with them?" Astrid asked him. She gestured to Hiccup with a delicate wave of her hand.

Hiccup inhaled, but no immediate solution came to mind. All eyes returned to him, watching and waiting for his decision. They looked to him as they had before, as their leader, as the future chief, and not as a dangerous blood-thirsty vampire that might devour them in their sleep.

"If we capture them, we can lock them up until we know what else to do with them," Hiccup said.

"On Dragon's Edge?" Heather asked, brows raised.

"I agree with Heather," Fishlegs said. "That doesn't sound like a good idea. I mean, all those dragon hunters on an island filled with dragons?"

"They might leak information to Viggo," Astrid said. "Should they escape or memorize your defenses. Which, can I add, you could use more off."

"We should attack before those ships arrive to wherever they're going," Heather said. "Before they can spread news about Hiccup. The ports won't see it coming."

"But how do we know where they're going?" Astrid asked.

"I used to work with them," Heather said. She walked to the map on the wall and pointed to a long, sword-shaped island on the map. "There's a small port on the southern tip of Blockmere Island. If I had to guess, that's where they're headed."

"Alright," Hiccup said, nodding. "Let's mount of and head out. Astrid, you don't have to go if you-"

"Are you kidding?" Astrid said, grinning. "And miss all the action? No way, Hiccup. I'm going."

Heather chuckled, holding her axe. "You know, I change my mind. I like her."

Hiccup sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright, but be careful. Stay close, okay?"

Astrid smiled wider, and nodded. "Let's go."

They mounted, and with Heather in point, they raced from the Edge toward Blockmere Island. Hiccup flanked behind, with Astrid behind him. She didn't look bothered or worried about riding on Stormfly, and Stormfly, although still wild by their standards, didn't look overburdened with the idea of a human rider, either. Or, vampire rider, he supposed.

Blockmere's dragon port was nestled in a tall forest that ended in a sheer cliff. The only means of transport from the docks in the water to the port was a series of dragon-proof lifts. They had been built into carved-out crevasses in the stone to hide them from view.

"That's impressive work," Fishlegs said. "We should add some of those to the eastern cliffs back on the Edge."

"Let's talk about design later, Fishlegs," Hiccup said, although he too felt a mild awe for the construction. They  _could_  use something like that on the eastern cliffs. "It doesn't look like our hunter ships have arrived, none of these look damaged."

"Yeah, we tore those hunter ships apart," Snotlout said.

"Okay, gang, keep with the rescue plan, go," Hiccup said, and the riders shot apart in separate direction, except for him and Astrid.

"What do I do?" Astrid asked.

"You're with me," Hiccup said. "We're going to linger back and when the defenses go down, we're going in to rescue the dragons. Just follow my lead."

The other riders dove, and the chaotic battle began. Hunter arrows flung in everything direction, whizzing past and on all sides; Hiccup kept one eye on Astrid, but she and Stormfly dodged and weaved like they'd been flying together for months. Snotlout and the Twins blasted through the main line of catapults, and Hiccup dove through the smoke, into the fray of the port, with Astrid right behind.

A camouflaged catapult took him by surprise, but a quick shot of Nadder spines knocked the boulder off its path, and it missed Toothless. Astrid let out a war cry from behind him.

Hiccup and Toothless flew into the wooden building that housed the dragons; it appeared to operate much like a hunter ship. Cells lined the walls, and a rope attached to the ceiling released the doors. Hiccup jumped onto Toothless's back as he ran down the hall, and Hiccup pulled each rope as they went.

The freed dragons flew from the other end, knocking out hunters in their mad dash. With all the dragons freed, Stormfly let out a bright burst of fire, and the hunter stronghold went up in flames. The night lit up with the flames as they raced from building to building. Hunters scattered in all directions, and several ran toward the lifts to the boats.

With the port destroyed and the dragons freed and the hunters running scared, Hiccup signaled the win. The riders headed to the sky with victorious shouts.

"Ha! Did you see us take out that catapult?" Tuffnut said. "I mean, I know we're excellent dragon riders, I mean, just look at us. How much more dragon ridery can we get?"

"I've never seen something burn so fast," said Ruffnut.

Hiccup urged Toothless to fly closer to Astrid. "Hey, you, uh, did really well tonight."

"I had a good teacher," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

He met her gaze, and warmth bubbled in his chest. It struck something else, deeper, and it plagued his stomach. He swallowed, and cleared his throat. It had been a while since he'd eaten.

They flew back to the Edge in their joyous triumph, talking all the way. Dragon's Edge appeared through the darkness, and as they landed at the stables, the first glow of dawn appeared in the east.

Hiccup put a hand on his stomach; he'd need to eat before he went to bed.

"What happened?" Fishlegs cried out.

Hiccup's attention snapped. Fishlegs stood in the door of the stables.

"Fishlegs?" Heather jumped from Windsheer's back and joined him. He looked back at the others with a downcast frown.

"What? What is it?" Hiccup asked.

"We've had visitors," Fishlegs said.

They all ran to the stables. The doors were open, barrels overturned, and their stock raided. Someone had gone through the stables.

"Check your huts," Hiccup said.

They separated on dragons and each flew to their hut. Astrid joined Hiccup. His door had been left open. Each drawer had been emptied. His chest had been gone through and several older versions of his leg littered the floor. Some of his designs had been stomped on.

"It was a distraction," Hiccup seethed. He balls his fists.

"You think Viggo did this?"

"Maybe not Viggo himself, but I'd bet that the dragon hunters lured us away from the Edge so they could search it," Hiccup said.

"Or attack if you hadn't followed the ships," Astrid said.

Hiccup growled, and kicked an empty, overturned crate.

"Hiccup, it'll be okay," Astrid said.

"I just…I feel tricked. Violated. Viggo used me again."

"And we'll make him pay for all he's done," Astrid said, calmly.

Hiccup took a deep breath, and released his fists. "You're right. Right now, we should take an inventory. See if anything was stolen."

Astrid nodded. "Right. While you do that, I'm going to hunt. I'll bring you back something to eat, okay?"

His stomach whined. He nodded. "Alright."

Astrid grabbed the jar from before, and headed out. The glow in the east had brightened.

Hiccup tried to straighten up his hut, and before the run rose completely, he met the others back at the clubhouse.

"Well?" Hiccup asked. "Anything?"

"Nothing is missing," Fishlegs said. "They trashed my garden, and I'll have to reorganize all my notes, but no, I don't think they took anything."

"Nope, we got all our stuff," said Tuffnut. Ruffnut nodded.

Snotlout shook his head. "Man, what jerks. Did they come over just to trash the place?"

"If they didn't take anything," Heather started, and glanced at Hiccup. "Then why did they show up at all?"

"Astrid mentioned that they would have invaded the Edge whether we'd left or not," Hiccup said. "I think she's right. Viggo had planned for both events."

"But what's the point?" Heather asked. "We don't have anything they need. They already took the Dragon Eye."

"Thor only knows how many wild dragons they took," Fishlegs said, hands on his cheeks. "And some of them had just escaped, too."

"Viggo is messing with us," Hiccup said, fists clenched. He'd been had again. Viggo had tricked him, surprised him, and made them look foolish. Again. Hiccup growled, and let his anger out through his knuckles, and slammed his fist into the wall of the clubhouse.

The wood underneath his knuckles cracked, and the clubhouse deafened; all eyes were on him. Hiccup took a deep breath, and pulled his uninjured fist from the wall. He'd left a sizeable dent in the wood.

No one spoke. If anything, they looked shocked, and, if anything else, afraid.

Hiccup shook his head. "You guys keep looking. See if you can't fix this place up. I need some sleep."

The sun had risen above the sea, and the Edge glowed with the new morning light. It spilled into the doorway, just out of Hiccup's reach. He stood in the shadow of the doorway. He caught Heather's stare, like worry and pity.

"I'll be fine," he said. He stepped out into the sunlight. It didn't burn, but it pulled his energy like he swam through thick water. "A little bit won't hurt me."

The walk to his hut left him exhausted. He clamored into through the door and shut it quick behind him, shutting the light out. He stood for a moment in the darkness of his hut.

He could smell it, blood, warm and bittersweet, behind him.

Astrid sat on the bed, jar in her hands. Her cheeks looked flushed; she'd already eaten.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. He joined her upstairs, and took the jar from her hands. He sat beside her as he drank. When the bloodied and empty bottom of the jaw looked back at him, he set it on the bedside table.

He felt tremendously better, refreshed. His anger had subsided into bitterness.

Astrid didn't move. She held her hands in her lap.

"Are you?" he asked.

She glanced toward him. "Am I what?"

"Okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."

"Astrid?"

She closed her eyes, and took a long breath. "They took my necklace."

"The one with the tribal emblem?"

She nodded. "I'd left it on your shelves, and it's gone."

"I'm sorry," Hiccup said. He set a hand on her shoulder. "It was something they could grab and sell quickly."

"Yeah," Astrid said, she nodded, but her anxiety stretched across from face. She caught Hiccup's eye, and sighed. "It's just, that was the only thing I had from home. I guess it doesn't really matter, it wasn't much of a home."

"You have a new home, Astrid," Hiccup said. This can be your home, if you want it to be."

She smiled at him, and all the warmth came fluttering back in his chest. He slid his hand from her shoulder to her cheek, and ran his thumb along her cheekbone. Gods, she was beautiful. Hiccup leaned in, and she met him, and he closed his lips around hers. He broke the kiss, and started to lean away, but she closed in for a second, sweeter kiss.

Astrid scooted onto the bed, and Hiccup followed, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She rested her head on his chest, and laid one hand over his heart. Hiccup felt sleep pulling at him, but he could feel the flutter of Astrid's eyelashes each time she blinked.

He hugged her closer, and whispered, "It'll be alright, Astrid. When we kick Viggo's ass, we'll turn his island upside down until we find your necklace."

"It's okay," she said. "It's just a necklace. Like you said, this is my home now. With you."

He hugged her closer still.

X

Hiccup woke that evening with Astrid still in his arms, but they had moved. She lay beside him, on her side, and he had curled around her. She held one of his hands close to her chest, against her breast. Hiccup lay where his breath hit the side of her neck, and bounced back to him, and pushed her scent against his face.

Oh, gods.

Astrid's heart beat against his hand, and he couldn't stand it. He shifted, and pressed his lips against her neck. He kissed her skin, found her pulse underneath, and held his lips against it.

Astrid mumbled in her sleep, and squeezed his hand. Her eyes fluttered open, and he pulled his mouth away from her neck.

"Hiccup?"

"Good morning," he said.

"That's one to wake someone up," she said with a smile. She hugged his hand closed, pressing it into her breast.

He leaned down and kissed her neck again, and lingered above her pulse. Astrid hummed, and he pulled her closer to him.

He could kiss her, he could bite her, and taste that blood that smelled so good.

Astrid hummed again, and pushed her head into the pillow, seemingly stretching her neck out for him. He pressed his lips against her neck, and found her pulse; the tips of his fangs grazed her skin. Astrid let out a small whimper, and his heart burst.

Every fiber of his being wanted her.

He pressed her teeth against her pulse, and she squeezed his hand.

"Hiccup," she breathed, pressing his hand into her heartbeat.

The tips if his fangs broke the surface of her skin, and he sank his teeth into her.


End file.
